THEY  THAT  SAT 
IN  DARKNESS 


BV 

3445 

.S8 

1912 


YOSHIMICHI SUGIURA 


txhvary  of  t:he  theological  ^tminaxy 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


BV  3445  .S8  1912 

Sugiura,  Yoshimichi 

They  that  sat  in  darkness 


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THEY  THAT  SAT  IN 


DARKNESS    x^^^^^^^o^^i 


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^e/CAL    SB^^^i) 


An  Account  of  Rescue  Work  in  Japan 
in  the  words  of 


THE 


REV.  YOSHIMICHI   SUGIURA 


DOMESTIC  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY 

281     FOURTH     AVENUE 

NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  19 12,  by 
DOMESTIC  AND  FOREIGN  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY 


PREFACE. 

It  was  some  thirty  years  ago,  while  a  stu- 
dent at  St.  Paul's  College,  Tokyo,  that  I  began 
to  study  the  Bible  with  the  guidance  of  the 
late  Bishop  G.  M.  Williams,  and  by  his  kind 
efforts  and  the  great  influence  of  his  saintly 
character,  that  acted  upon  my  miserable  self 
thirsting  only  for  the  worldly  fame  and 
riches,  I  was  converted  and  baptized  by  the 
Bishop,  in  December,  1881. 

In  those  days  the  Christian  influence  in 
this  country  was  very  weak,  and  almost  all 
the  students  even  in  this  Christian  college 
were  much  disgusted  with  the  religious  in- 
structions. My  friends  in  this  city  were  con- 
stantly cautioning  me  not  to  believe  the  for- 
eign religion  but  only  to  study  English,  as  it 
was  advantageous  to  learn  it  in  such  school 
taught  by  foreigners.  When  I  was  baptized, 
however,  I  had  contrived  how  to  surprise 
them  by  informing  it.  One  Sunday  evening, 
when  the  Bishop  was  going  to  preach  in  a 
chapel  in  Kanda,  in  which  district  many  of  my 

3 


4  PREFACE 

such  anti-Christian  friends  were  staying,  I 
called  on  them  and  persuaded  them  to  come  to 
the  chapel  to  hear  this  great  man's  sermon 
once.  Having  got  the  Bishop's  permission  be- 
forehand, I  ascended  to  the  pulpit  to  my 
friends'  surprise,  and  preached  first  and  told 
them  that  they  were  misunderstanding  this 
true  religion.  By  this  unexpected  conduct  of 
mine,  they  had  rather  to  give  up  their  hope  of 
me,  while  one  of  them  got  very  angry  with  me 
and  told  others  even  that  he  would  kill  me. 

Seeing  such  adverse  circumstances  of  my 
country  and  that  the  volunteers  for  the  mis- 
sion work  were  very  rare,  I  was  deeply  im- 
pressed with  that  it  was  really  the  most  urgent 
matter  to  consider,  and  I  thought  it  necessary 
to  offer  myself  to  Lord's  service.  But  for 
many  years  I  could  not  prepare  myself  for 
Holy  orders  on  account  of  many  hindrances. 
So  I  worked  as  a  layman  and  converted  my 
family  and  other  people  in  my  native  town, 
Obama,  in  Fukui  Prefecture,  and  a  church 
was  at  last  founded  there.  The  church  in 
Hagi,  Yamaguchi  Prefecture,  was  also 
founded  as  a  consequence  of  my  work,  when 
I  was  in  Osaka  city,  and  a  pastor  was  sent 
to  it  from  the  Presbyterian  church. 


PREFACE  5 

At  last,  in  1888,  I  entered  Trinity  Divinity 
School,  Tokyo,  as  I  was  hoping  for  many 
years.  While  I  was  a  student  there,  Bishop 
Williams  asked  me  to  take  care  of  the  True 
Light  Church.  This  church  was  formerly  in 
his  care  and  is  indeed  the  first  church  he  ever 
founded  in  Tokyo,  thirty-seven  years  ago. 
But  when  many  churches  and  chapels  were 
built  afterward  in  the  city,  many  a  member 
of  this  church  began  very  naturally  to  leave 
it  and  attend  those  nearer  and  more  conve- 
nient to  them,  so  that  in  about  1890  the  church 
was  at  its  lowest  ebb,  and  the  Sunday  attend- 
ance was  seldom  more  than  ten,  and  there- 
fore its  remaining  members  asked  the  Bishop 
to  send  me.  I  am  working  ever  since  for  this 
same  church. 

As  soon  as  I  began  my  work  in  this  church 
there  occurred  an  event  that  aroused  my  sym- 
pathy with  the  poor  people  in  this  part  of 
the  city.  In  the  afternoon  of  a  Sunday  in 
Lent,  1890,  a  member  of  my  church  took  me 
by  my  request  to  a  person  who  used  to  attend 
the  church  before.  He  was  a  blind  man,  and 
was  very  ill  when  I  called  on.  His  wife  was 
a  blind  woman  too,  and  was  out  for  her  work 
then.     They  were  shampooers  by  trade,  and 


6  PREFACE 

they  had  no  child  hetween  them.  They  were 
poor,  even  more  so  now  that  this  man  fell  in 
his  sick  bed:  feeble  hand  of  the  blind  woman 
had  to  support  herself  and  her  sick  husband. 

When  I  took  my  seat  by  his  bedside  the 
sick  man  told  me  that  he  had  been  ill  for 
two  months,  and  that,  as  there  was  no  hope 
of  recovering  his  health,  and  as  it  was  only  to 
give  his  wife  a  longer  trouble  to  postpone 
his  death,  he  w^as  refusing  to  receive  the  medi- 
cal attendance  for  many  weeks  then.  The 
poor  man's  eager  desire  was  only  to  die  as 
soon  as  possible! 

This  w^as  my  first  experience  I  ever  met 
with  in  a  slum.  He  was  so  much  self-aban- 
doning but  lack  of  faith.  But  when  we  think 
that  he  came  to  such  a  conclusion  as  to  wish 
death  only  because  of  misfortune  and  poverty 
we  cannot  help  feeling  deep  sympathy  and 
commiseration  for  him.  So  I  taught  him  that 
our  life  is  in  God's  hand,  and  without  His 
permission  it  is  impossible  to  make  it  longer 
or  shorter  at  our  own  will;  and  I  prayed  for 
him  by  his  side  that  the  will  of  God  would 
be  revealed  and  w^e  shall  be  given  the  means 
to  proceed. 

I  continued  to  pray  for  him  day  after  day 


PREFACE  7 

for  the  whole  week,  and  when  I  called  on  an- 
other member  of  my  church  on  the  following 
Sunday  I  got  a  very  clear  answer  of  God. 
Among  the  friends  of  this  man  there  was  a 
Christian  by  the  name  of  Mr.  R.  Tsuda,  who 
belonged  to  a  Presbyterian  church,  and  he 
happened  to  be  present  in  my  member's  house 
also.  As  our  conversation  went  on,  and  when 
I  told  of  the  poor  blind  man,  Mr.  Tsuda 
clapped  his  hands  and  informed  me  that  there 
was  just  the  man  wanted,  a  physician,  who 
was  looking  for  such  poor  sufferers  to  give 
help.  So  I  left  the  house  at  once,  and  hur- 
ried away  about  three  miles  to  see  the  phy- 
sician, who  was  staying  in  a  lodging  house 
near  the  Imperial  University  in  Hongo  dis- 
trict. Though  I  was  told  the  name  of  the 
doctor,  Michitaro  Fukuhara,  his  exact  ad- 
dress was  unknown  to  Mr.  Tsuda,  and  con- 
sequently it  was  a  very  difficult  task  to  find 
him  out,  as  there  were  hundreds  of  the  stu- 
dents' lodging  houses  around  the  University. 
I  was  wandering  about  there  for  nearly  two 
hours,  and  when  it  became  dark  in  the  evening 
it  was  almost  impossible  to  go  on  further 
searching.  I  then  began  to  question  if  it 
was  the  answer  of  God.     But  courage,  I  said 


8  PREFACE 

to  myself,  and  ventured  once  more  into  a 
hotel  in  a  lane  nearby,  and  lo!  the  gentle- 
man that  appeared  before  me  answering 
at  the  door  was  the  very  man  I  was  looking 
for. 

Having  agreed,  we  visited  the  blind  man  on 
the  next  morning.  After  a  careful  examina- 
tion, it  was  found  that  the  disease  was  of  se- 
rious nature,  and  it  was  urgently  necessary 
to  put  him  into  a  hospital  at  least  for  five 
weeks. 

Dr.  Fukuhara  was  very  obliging,  and  took 
trouble  to  obtain  for  him  a  free  bed  at  the 
University  hospital.  When  we  visited  the  pa- 
tient next  time  to  convey  him  to  the  hospital, 
the  man  declined  to  accept  our  kind  offer  upon 
such  foolish  ground  that  he  would  rather  die 
in  his  own  house,  not  in  a  hospital.  His  ob- 
stinacy was  never  to  yield,  notwithstanding 
my  hard  endeavor  to  bring  the  right  idea 
home  to  him.  Dr.  Fukuhara  was  much  per- 
plexed and  despaired,  for  it  was  impossible 
to  perform  surgical  operation  in  this  dirty 
room.  But  I  said  that,  since  he  wanted  to  die 
as  soon  as  possible,  we  did  not  need  to  be  so 
timid;  if  he  die,  that  is  all;  it  is  the  duty  on 
our  part  to  do  our  best;  should  he  desire  it. 


PREFACE  9 

we  have  no  choice  and  must  proceed  to  operate 
even  in  this  unsatisfactory  v^ay. 

On  the  next  morning  we  visited  him  again. 
The  physician  brought  his  instruments  and  I 
a  bottle  of  the  carboHc-acid  and  other  nec- 
essary articles.  Without  giving  the  narcotic 
help,  and  with  such  imperfect  preparation  we 
began  to  venture  the  risk.  While  Dr.  Fuku- 
hara  was  cutting  his  body,  I  was  to  help  his 
operation,  holding  fast  the  patient's  limbs,  as 
he  cried  and  shook  his  body  in  pain.  The 
operation,  however,  was  finished  in  a  rather 
satisfactory  way.  We  used  to  visit  him  alter- 
nately to  wash  the  cut  for  about  a  month,  and 
he  became  a  very  strong  man  again,  and  was 
baptized  by  me.  He  lived  on  for  seven  years 
as  a  Christian,  giving  glory  to  God  until  he 
was  taken  away  of  consumption. 

This  event,  which  occurred  at  the  beginning 
of  my  work  in  this  peculiar  part  of  the  city, 
led  me  to  start  "The  Good  Samaritan  Dis- 
pensary" for  such  people,  whom  I  found  al- 
ways crowding  in  it,  and  at  last  I  was  induced 
to  organize  the  "Laborers'  Reform  Union," 
after  a  long  experience  in  my  work  among 
them,  as  I  give  the  explanation  of  it  in  this 
little  book. 


They    That    Sat    in 
Darkness 


I. 


We  Depend  Only   on   God's   Power  and 

Help. 

Tokyo,  September  2,  19 lo. 
Man  plans  his  work  first  by  raising  the 
money  necessary  for  it,  and  starts  it  on  the 
scale  according  to  the  amount  raised.  But  I 
took  a  different  course,  and  started  the  work 
of  the  L.  R.  U.  on  the  principle  that  where 
there  is  the  spirit  there  is  the  way ;  and  as  to 
the  funds  for  it,  I  never  cared  for  that,  en- 
tirely depending  on  the  true  commander's 
supply,  thinking  that  the  only  duty  on  my 
part  is  to  work,  with  earnest  prayers,  in  union 
with  the  will  of  God.  I  therefore  asked  that 
He  would  send  His  faithful  servants  to  help 
me,  that  His  mighty  power  be  revealed  in  my 
work  through  them.  I  am  getting  His  an- 
il 


12  THEY  THAT  SAT 

swers  so  plentifully  that  I  have  often  burst 
into  grateful  tears,  when  I  kneel  down  to 
thank  God  for  them. 

I  have  also  taught  my  poor  members  of  the 
Union  that  they  should  never  rely  upon  human 
power  for  help,  but  fight  themselves  with  the 
power  which  is  within  them.  We  are  not 
yet  given  special  house  for  meeting,  but  in  the 
little  house  of  a  laborer,  Mr.  T.  Gonda,  the 
work  is  going  on  very  nicely  as  from  the  be- 
ginning, to  the  astonishment  of  those  who 
come  to  see  it,  hearing  its  reputation.  The 
work,  however,  is  not  limited  in  this  little 
house  only,  for  all  the  members  of  the  Union 
are  preaching  the  Gospel  daily  according  to 
the  rule  of  the  Union,  whenever  the  oppor- 
tunity presents  itself  in  their  work  houses  or 
in  the  streets. 

And  thus  the  Union  is  progressing  on  its 
way,  without  any  funds  for  the  house  and 
workers,  led  by  the  mighty  hand  of  God. 


IN  DARKNESS  13 

II. 

The  Origin  of  the  L.  R.  U. 

It  is  twenty  years  since  I  became  the  min- 
ister-in-charge  of  the  Shinko  Kyokwai  (True 
Light  Church).  This  church  is  in  the  indus- 
trial part  of  Tokyo,  which  comprises  the  dis- 
tricts of  Fukagawa  and  Honjo.  From  the 
beginning  of  my  work  in  these  districts  I  in- 
vestigated the  condition  of  the  laborers  and 
my  sympathy  being  roused  I  determined  to 
do  what  I  could  for  them.  To  this  end  I 
started  the  Good  Samaritan  Dispensary  in 
February,  1890,  and  tried  to  use  their  bodily 
salvation  as  a  means  to  bring  about  their  spir- 
itual salvation.  The  dispensary  helped  many 
poor  people,  but  as  the  lepers  of  old  few  re- 
turned to  give  glory  to  God. 

Beside  the  dispensary,  I  tried  many  other 
methods  of  reaching  them,  but  their  character 
was  such  that  they  gave  thought  only  to  the 
things  of  this  world.  One  of  the  great  diffi- 
culties was  that  their  point  of  view  and  mine 
were  so  absolutely  different,  that  we  mutu- 


14  THEY   THAT  SAT 

ally  misunderstood  each  other,  and  all  my 
plans  ended  with  almost  no  fruits.  These  fail- 
ures of  my  work  for  past  seventeen  years  gave 
me  the  knowledge  as  the  preparation  to  plan 
another,  and  I  decided  to  select  some  of  the 
few  that  did  understand  and  reach  others 
through  them.  That  is  how  I  came  to  organ- 
ize the  L.  R.  U.  in  April,  1907.  The  words 
chosen  for  the  name  of  this  society  are  secu- 
lar, and  the  people  who  attend  the  meetings 
found  that  they  are  thrown  with  laborers  like 
themselves — men  they  could  understand.  So 
the  reputation  of  our  society  became  great, 
and  many  people  began  to  attend  the  meet- 
ings. 

Truly  their  condition  was  like  hell  on  earth. 
They  are  refusing  to  partake  of  the  heavenly 
food  offered  them.  They  were  drunkards  and 
gamblers;  they  were  lazy  and  servile.  So 
first  we  taught  them  of  an  earthly  paradise,  to 
enter  which  repentance  for  such  sins  was  nec- 
essary. Then  I  showed  them  the  spirit  of 
self-denial,  self-help  and  self-respect  could 
only  come  through  God's  help.  Thus  little 
by  little  I  brought  the  truth  home  to  them. 
Those  who  resolved  on  reform  could  become 
members  of  the  Union. 


IN  DARKNESS  15 

Laborers  dreaming  of  an  earthly  paradise 
came  in  and  they  conquered  sin  and  improved 
the  condition  of  their  lives;  their  thinking 
became  gradually  higher  and  higher.  At  last 
they  realized  that  man  does  not  live  by  bread 
alone  and  their  ideals  reached  beyond  an 
earthly  paradise  to  the  heavenly.  Finally  some 
were  baptized  and  became  Christians.  I  used 
those  Christians  as  the  officers  of  the  Union, 
and  made  them  direct  leaders  and  overseers 
of  their  fellow  laborers.  This  method  works 
wxll.  Their  influence  is  effective,  where  my 
influence  would  amount  to  very  little. 


i6  THEY  THAT  SAT 

III. 

Some  of  My  Present  Difficulties. 

The  society  of  our  country  has  as  yet  no 
sympathy  for  my  work.  So  now,  since  almost 
empty-handed  I  am  facing  the  lowest  stratum 
of  society  and  its  darkest  side  and  have  well 
begun  the  battle,  the  difficulties  seem  more 
than  I  can  tell.  Yet  I  believe  that  God  is  with 
me  and  ever  miraculously  sustains  me.  I  am 
carrying  on  the  work  without  one  penny,  and 
yet  the  results  are  comparatively  great  and 
beautiful.  As  I  have  mentioned  already,  the 
absolutely  essential  thing  for  my  work  is 
workers.  I  thank  God  that  it  is  that,  rather 
than  money  or  furnishing.  He  has  given  the 
Union  the  very  men  it  needs.  Among  them 
I  can  count  Messrs.  T.  Gonda  and  T.  Kikuchi, 
who  are  the  early  converts  of  the  Union,  and 
Messrs.  K.  Majima  and  N.  Wada,  who  are 
earnest  Christians  and  rendered  their  help  to 
me  in  every  possible  way.  Then  there  is  Mr. 
H.  Hatano,  who  is  a  writer  of  a  large  maga- 
zine in  this  city.  The  Jitsugyo  no  Nihon,  has 


IN   DARKNESS  17 

joined  us  to  render  assistance  with  his  mighty 
pen.  He  wrote  in  his  magazine  Mr.  Numari's 
history,  to  show  forth  to  the  people  God's 
miraculous  power,  which  had  just  begun  to 
work  in  the  Union,  in  its  numbers  of  June  and 
July,  1909. 

I  wish  to  mention  in  passing  about  Mr.  M. 
Numari.  In  November,  1907,  he  had  called 
on  m.e  and  asked  me  very  earnestly  to  give 
him  my  assistance,  confessing  all  his  past  sins 
and  crimes.  He  told  me  that  he  had  spent  his 
life  in  committing  dreadful  crimes,  having 
been  sentenced  at  least  twenty  times  to  im- 
prisonment, after  he  had  run  away  from  his 
father's  house  when  he  was  but  thirteen  years 
of  age — 1895.  He  was  released  from  the  last 
term  a  month  before  he  came  to  me,  and  went 
to  his  native  town,  where  he  found  no  one 
who  had  love  or  sympathy  to  receive  him — 
even  his  own  father  had  refused  to  take  him 
into  his  house,  telling  him  that  if  he  stayed 
any  longer  in  the  town  the  father  must  com- 
mit suicide,  for  he  could  not  endure  to  be 
called  the  father  of  such  wicked  fellow  by 
his  townsmen.  So  he  reluctantly  came  out 
again  to  this  dangerous  city,  where  his  old 
companions  were  waiting  to  receive  him  into 


i8  THEY  THAT  SAT 

their  bands.  Fortunately,  however,  he  was 
introduced  to  me  by  a  deacon,  Rev.  S.  Tsu- 
chida,  who  was  working  in  the  town,  and  fell 
into  my  hands.  I  gave  him  work  immedi- 
ately, and  treated  him  most  carefully,  and 
committed  him  to  Mr.  Wada,  who  volunteered 
to  take  him  into  his  house  to  enable  him  to 
escape  from  the  dangerous  environment.  He 
was  so  much  moved  by  the  kindness  of  Mr. 
Wada  that  he  burst  into  a  loud  cry  one  day, 
and  told  a  friend  that  if  he  cannot  be  saved 
this  time  there  is  no  way  to  go  in  this  world 
but  only  death.  By  the  kind  help  of  Mr.  Wada 
he  studied  the  Bible  with  the  utmost  zeal, 
and  his  bad  character  was  thoroughly  sub- 
dued by  the  amazing  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  The  change  was  so  great  that  the  po- 
lice authorities  of  this  city,  who  at  first 
doubted  the  repentance  of  such  a  famous  thief, 
and  even  cautioned  me  for  my  safety,  had 
thanked  us  for  his  complete  reform.  After 
a  few  months  I  took  him  from  Mr.  Wada's 
hand  and  made  him  live  with  other  members 
in  the  boarding  house.  After  his  conversion 
he  began  to  work  with  hunger  to  convert  his 
old  friends,  and  many  of  them  were  moved 
and  repented. 


IN  DARKNESS  19 

Indeed,  the  essential  for  this  work  of  the 
Union  is  the  workers  God  had  thus  far  given. 
On  these  men  the  work,  the  very  existence,  of 
the  Union  depends. 


20  THEY  THAT  SAT 


IV. 

Mr.  Numari's  First  Battle  for  His  Faith. 

It  was  not  rare  that  our  members  were  at- 
tacked and  persecuted  by  the  ignorant  people 
when  they  tried  to  preach  the  Gospel  at  every- 
where, and  this  is  an  instance  of  the  cases : 

It  was  in  June,  1909,  that  Mr.  Numari 
went  into  Sunamura,  where  gangs  of  villains 
are  living.  He  was  attacked  by  three  of  them. 
It  was  the  best  test  for  his  faith,  for  he  was 
very  violent  and  fierce,  and  was  easily  waxed 
warm  in  rage  before.  But  he  did  not  resist 
their  assault  now  and  stood  silently  while  they 
thrashed  him,  and  then  told  them  that,  as  a 
Christian,  he  will  never  get  angry  against 
such  violences,  but  rather  have  pity  on  them, 
for  he  anticipate  that  awful  punishment  of 
God  is  coming  upon  them.  Saying  this  he 
prostrated  himself  before  them  and  prayed 
God  to  pardon  them.  By  this  astonishing 
conduct  two  of  them  were  much  moved,  but 
the  third,  who  was  intoxicated  with  "sake," 


THE  WOUNDED  SOLDIER  IS  WAITING  FOR  HIS 
SECOND  CAMPAIGN 


IN  DARKNESS  21 

was  enraged  even  more  fiercely,  and  gave 
heavy  blows  with  club  and  began  to  drag  him 
to  throw  him  into  a  stream  near  by.  But  as 
he  made  no  resistance  at  all  the  other  two 
now  turned  to  his  side,  and  seeing  his  dan- 
ger they  treated  him  kindly  and  made  him  es- 
cape. 

As  he  had  received  many  wounds,  he  waited 
to  recover  for  about  ten  days,  and  went  again 
to  the  same  place  with  more  vigor  than  ever, 
and  brought  the  enemy  to  repentance.  When 
he  told  this  story  in  our  meeting,  he  exclaimed 
most  emphatically:  "Who  can  say  among 
you  that  there  is  no  God  or  it  is  impossible  to 
see  him?  Such  a  saintly  conduct  was  done 
without  any  will  of  my  own,  and  it  is  even  the 
astonishment  of  myself.  Are  you  so  blind  and 
foolish  that  you  cannot  see  this  visible  power 
of  God,  that  lives  so  clearly  within  me?  Take 
it  out  from  me  now,  then  I  would  be  the  great 
thief  instantly  as  before  who  shall  steal  into 
your  house  this  night." 


22  THEY  THAT  SAT 


Mr.  Wada''s  Journey  to  Northeast. 

Mr.  Wada,  who  undertook  a  delightful 
plan  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  the  purport  of 
the  Union  among  the  laborers  outside  of 
Tokyo,  started  for  the  tour  on  the  ist  April, 
1909.  But  as  the  Union  is  not  yet  rich 
enough  to  pay  the  traveling  expenses  he  had 
entirely  to  rely  upon  Christ's  words  to  His 
disciples,  when  He  sent  them  out  preaching. 
It  was  a  matter  of  course  that  he  was  quite 
prepared  to  take  any  work  that  God  gives  him 
on  his  way,  and  if  necessary  to  sleep  in  the 
fields  or  on  the  mountainside.  He  pushed  on 
his  way  northward,  town  after  town,  village 
after  village,  preaching  in  the  street  or  in  the 
chapel,  in  the  schoolhouse  or  in  the  factory, 
always  attracting  a  wonderfully  great  audi- 
ence around  him,  and  leaving  the  repentants 
to  the  care  of  the  churches  there.  Of  course, 
I  had  sent  him  money  whenever  I  received  the 
gift  for  it,  but  the  difficulties  he  had  encoun- 


MR.  WADA  AS  A  MINER 


IN  DARKNESS  23 

tered  were  beyond  imagination.  By  the 
mighty  protection  of  God,  however,  he  re- 
turned to  Tokyo  on  i8th  July,  with  more  suc- 
cess than  we  had  hoped,  after  going  round 
even  in  some  part  of  Hokkaido. 

When  he  was  staying  at  the  Arakawa  mine, 
near  the  city  of  Akita,  he  actually  became  a 
miner,  with  a  view  to  get  acquaintance  with 
those  laborers  in  it,  and  worked  with  them. 
After  a  few  days'  labor  he  held  a  meeting  in 
a  schoolhouse  and  succeeded  in  gathering  an 
audience  of  about  700  workingmen  and  offi- 
cers of  the  mine.  Such  a  large  meeting  was 
never  held  there  before,  notwithstanding  the 
great  effort  of  these  officials,  with  a  hope  to 
give  them  the  moral  instruction.  And  there- 
fore one  of  them  has  wrote  to  me  thanking  us 
for  our  work,  and  informed  me  that  they 
will  prepare  to  start  a  branch  of  the  L.  R.  U. 
there  in  a  near  future. 


24  THEY  THAT  SAT 


yi. 


The  Effect  of  My  Work  on  the  Hearts 
OF  Poor  People. 

Most  of  the  laborers  can  get  money  enough 
to  support  their  famihes  by  their  own  work. 
God  is  not  partial,  and  so  long  as  they  lead 
their  lives  in  honest  way,  there  is  no  reason 
that  they  should  be  so  unfortunate  that  they 
must  depend  upon  others'  help.  Nay,  they 
are  even  able  to  promote  their  happiness  by 
their  efforts,  if  they  have  the  higher  spirit. 
However  poor  and  miserable  they  might  be, 
all  the  laborers  who  became  the  members  of 
the  Union  w^ere  excited  to  strive  with  wonder- 
ful courage  to  overcome  the  devil's  power, 
which  debase  them,  trusting  only  in  God.  Let 
me  describe  here  an  instance  of  our  triumph : 

At  the  end  of  the  year  1907,  in  which  I 
started  this  work,  a  gentleman  called  at  my 
house  and  asked  my  wife  to  give  him  assist- 
ance by  leading  him  to  the  poorest  slum  for 
his  charitable   work.     But  as  I  was  not  at 


IN  DARKNESS  25 

home  then  my  wife  told  him  to  go  to  the  meet- 
ing house  of  the  Union,  where  he  was  di- 
rected at  last  to  the  house  of  one  of  the  poor- 
est members  of  the  Union,  who  lives  in  a 
slum  that  seems  more  like  hell  than  like  this 
world. 

He  was  much  pleased  and  satisfied  that  he 
had  come  to  such  an  ideal  place  for  his  pur- 
pose. He  then  told  the  member  about  his 
mighty  plan,  and  asked  him  to  help  by  dis- 
tributing his  charitable  presents  to  his  neigh- 
bors, expecting  that  the  member  should  ac- 
cept the  commission  and  be  very  much  pleased. 
Ah!  How  the  friend  answered?  How  he  ac- 
quitted himself?  This  was  the  true  test  not 
only  of  him  but  of  my  own  work! 

Thank  God.  The  member,  showing  the 
greatest  vigor  and  perseverance  with  his  cheer- 
ful smjles,  answered  as  follows:  *T  was  fet- 
tered for  more  than  thirty  years  of  my  past 
life  under  the  power  of  the  devil,  and  lost 
all  the  money  that  I  could  earn,  wasting  it  in 
merely  drinking.  I  was  so  debased  and  poor 
that  I  oftentimes  was  forced  to  ask  my  wife 
to  go  abroad  as  a  beggar.  If  this  kind  offer 
had  been  made  to  me  at  that  time  I  should 
have  accepted  it  with  the  utmost  eagerness  and 


26  THEY  THAT  SAT 

heartfelt  thanks  for  myself  and  for  my 
friends  about  here.  But  I  cannot  do  so  now, 
as  I  am  a  member  of  the  L.  R.  U.  My  only 
hope  is  that  you  will  understand  the  reason 
of  it  perfectly.  The  people  about  here  are 
truly  poor  and  miserable,  as  you  may  see  for 
yourself;  most  of  them  are  shuddering  in  this 
cold  season  without  clothes  and  crying  with 
hunger  for  food.  But  what  made  them  so 
miserable?  It  is  the  necessary  question  to  be 
solved  before  you  do  that  act  of  charity.  God 
gives  them  a  good  many  jobs  of  work  every 
day,  but  they  do  not  use  the  money  thus  given 
for  a  proper  purpose,  and  are  losing  it  by 
gambling,  drinking,  and  committing  every 
other  sin.  It  is  by  God's  law  and  will  that 
they  are  in  such  a  state,  so  long  as  they  lead 
their  lives  in  the  present  way.  I  am  an  old 
man  over  sixty  years  of  age,  and  am  not  able 
to  work  as  hard  as  they  can,  but  since  I  be- 
came a  servant  of  Christ,  and  my  life  was 
changed,  I  am  made  so  happy  with  my  wife 
and  children.  Not  only  can  I  supply  the  ne- 
cessity of  my  family,  but  I  am  moreover  able 
to  help  others  and  to  save  money.  You  see  by 
this  (and  he  showed  him  the  book  of  a  sav- 
ings bank),  and  may  know  that  I  am  speaking 


IN  DARKNESS  27 

the  truth.  I  am  a  prophet  among  these  poor 
people,  and  am  persuading  them  to  repent 
their  sins  and  to  yield  to  God  to  become  happy 
like  myself,  witnessing  God's  grace  with  this 
actual  change  of  my  character  and  life.  Now 
my  sincere  hope  for  you  is  that  you  may  un- 
derstand perfectly  that  your  charity  can  do  no 
good  for  them,  except  to  make  them  lazy  and 
help  them  to  go  on  in  a  more  sinful  way, 
while  they  are  declining  to  accept  our  instruc- 
tion. Is  it  not  more  clear  now,  that  man  shall 
not  be  saved  by  bread  alone,  in  this  case? 
You  had  better  spend  your  money  in  a  more 
useful  way." 

When  this  old  member  told  me  how  he  has 
answered,  with  pleasing  countenance,  I  praised 
him  highly,  and  received  his  report  as  if  I  had 
heard  the  first  shout  of  victory  in  my  battle- 
field, and  Banzaied  many  times  in  my  heart. 
Whether  this  gentleman  could  have  under- 
stood the  truth,  or  displeased  by  such  proud 
and  unwelcome  answer  of  this  poor  fellow  at 
that  time,  was  unknown  to  me,  but  when  he 
called  on  me  again  a  year  afterward  he  praised 
my  work  and  promised  to  help  it. 


28  THEY  THAT  SAT 


VII. 

The  Key  to  Open  the  Obstinate  Hearts 
OF  the  Poor  Laborers. 

It  is  truly  hard  work  to  raise  the  debased 
hearts  of  poor  people  to  such  a  high  spirit  of 
self-help  and  self-respect — much  harder  than 
to  see  the  mere  nodding  of  their  heads  by  the 
simple  charity  of  giving.  I  have  decided, 
however,  to  abstain  from  such  fruitless  char- 
ity, and  bend  my  whole  energy  to  convert 
their  hearts  at  first  for  many  years.  But  in 
case  of  necessity  I  used  to  give  in  such  a  way 
as  the  receivers  could  not  feel  it,  and  I  got 
at  last  a  splendid  result  in  the  hearts  of  few 
men.  Among  them  are  Mr.  Gonda  and  Mr. 
Kikuchi;  and  he  was  this  last  one,  whom  I 
have  mentioned  in  last  chapter. 

They  served  me  as  the  key  to  open  other 
obstinate  hearts,  and  afford  me  a  great  facil- 
ity to  push  my  work  on,  making  first  one  and 
then  another  a  key  to  another  in  turn.  The 
whole  number  of  the  members  of  the  Union 
is  about  one  hundred  at  present  (August  17, 


xn 
U 

O 

o 


IN  DARKNESS  29 

1 910).  And  as  the  Union  became  known 
rapidly  thus  among  the  poor  people  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  come  to  ask  our  help  has 
increased  month  after  month,  and  I  am  en- 
deavoring to  give  the  proper  work  to  each 
when  I  have  found  that  he  is  worthy  in  his 
spirit  to  receive  it.  The  urgent  necessity  has 
made  me  start  a  boarding  house  for  those  who 
have  no  home  in  July  i,  1909.  As  I  did  not 
have  money  enough  for  it  I  have  borrowed  a 
very  small  house  in  a  slum,  and  very  soon  it 
was  filled  with  fifteen  bodies.  The  house  is 
too  small  and  too  dirty,  but  I  have  no  power 
to  improve  it  in  any  way  at  present.  They  are 
crowded  in  a  small  space,  and  their  miserable 
condition  is  beyond  description.  Yet  their 
number  is  swelling  day  by  day,  and  it  seems 
to  demand  me  to  enlarge  it  endlessly. 

To  them  we  are  supplying  many  kinds  of 
articles  to  sell  easily  every  morning,  and  when 
they  come  back  at  the  evening  they  make  an 
account,  and  take  their  interest.  I  am  making 
Mr.  Gonda  direct  this  business,  which  is  going 
on  very  well.  They  are  holding  prayer  meet- 
ings in  the  house  with  other  members  who  live 
in  the  vicinity  to  receive  their  spiritual  salva- 
tion as  well. 


30  THEY  THAT  SAT    . 

When  they  could  save  some  amount  of 
money  in  this  way,  I  am  making  them  start 
their  own  business  in  a  small  scale  independ- 
ently. Some  of  them  have  succeeded  very 
well  in  it  already,  and  made  their  own  home. 


IN  DARKNESS  31 


VIII. 

Their  Sad  Histories  Before  They  Came 

To  Me. 

Though  their  poor  circumstances  before 
they  came  to  me  were  divers  and  different, 
they  all  alike  deserve  our  deep  sympathy  and 
commiseration.  Let  me  describe  a  few  in- 
stances of  them. 


A  POOR  YOUNG  ORPHAN. 

One  of  them  was  a  poor  young  orphan,  who 
came  out  from  his  native  country  to  Tokyo 
with  a  hope  to  get  some  work.  When  the 
poor  fellow  was  searching  for  it,  he  was  de- 
prived of  all  the  money  he  had  by  bands  of 
certain  wicked  men,  and  was  wandering  about 
for  some  days  without  taking  any  food.  At 
last  he  was  advised  to  come  to  the  Union  by 
a  kind  sympathizer. 


32  THEY  THAT   SAT 


A  SON   OF   SOME   COUNTRY   GENTLEMAN. 

Another  was  the  son  of  some  country  gen- 
tleman near  Tokyo,  who  died  a  few  years  ago, 
upon  which  the  whole  property  was  seized  by 
his  bad  uncle  and  the  family  was  reduced  to 
a  miserable  condition.  So  he  left  his  native 
place  in  agony  to  search  for  the  uncle  to  ask 
his  merciful  help.  But  when  he  found  him 
out  in  Yokohama,  the  uncle  relentlessly  re- 
fused to  accept  his  earnest  entreaty,  and  drove 
him  away,  without  giving  him  a  sen  of  money 
or  a  little  bit  of  bread.  He  then  came  to 
Tokyo  walking  on  foot,  without  any  hope, 
and  wandered  about  in  the  city,  sleeping  in 
an  iron  pipe  of  an  aqueduct,  which  was  thrown 
on  the  wayside,  at  night,  and  fell  into  my 
hands  eventually. 

MR.   S.   YOKOTA. 

Another  was  a  man,  Shofu  Yokota,  who  is 
about  forty  years  of  age.  He  was  once  a 
political  speaker,  an  official  of  the  government, 
a  speculator  in  the  rice  market  and  a  stock 
broker.     At  one  time  he  made  a  fortune  of 


IN  DARKNESS  33 

many  thousands  of  dollars,  but  after  failures 
in  the  business  he  fell  into  such  narrow  cir- 
cumstances that  he  could  in  no  way  support 
his  family.  He  thought  in  utter  grief  that  it 
was  a  great  pity  to  leave  his  dear  wife  and 
hungry  children  in  such  a  severe  pain  of  pov- 
erty, and  determined  rather  in  his  half-fren- 
zied state  of  mind  to  put  them  into  the  eternal 
rest,  and  that  he  should  go  after  them. 

Late  one  night,  when  they  were  fast  asleep, 
he  silently  rose  from  his  bed,  after  a  fierce 
struggle  in  his  heart  with  his  love  toward 
them,  and  desperately  forcing  it  back,  and 
w^ent  first  to  the  children,  holding  a  glittering 
sword  in  his  hand.  But  at  this  dangerous 
moment  he  saw  a  peaceful  smile  on  the  face 
of  his  youngest  child,  who  would  perhaps 
been  in  happy  dream,  and  he  felt  suddenly  a 
strange  emotion  in  his  heart  and  his  throat 
was  choked  with  bitter  tears. 

He  stooped  by  its  side  to  cry,  and  pondered 
about  his  ow^n  foolishness,  and  he  then  un- 
derstood that  this  misfortune  came  not  from 
any  other  cause  than  his  own  sins;  he  remem- 
bered that  his  previous  life  had  been  so  licen- 
tious, led  by  a  mind  that  lacks  any  good  mo- 
tive, and  that  it  was  necessary  to  change  his 


34  THEY  THAT  SAT 

heart  entirely,  and  lead  his  life  in  a  new  way. 
Gnashing  his  teeth  in  regret,  crying  out  his 
sorrow,  he  apologized  himself  in  his  heart  to 
the  sleeping  family  about  such  a  horrible  mis- 
conduct, and  determined  to  become  an  entirely 
different  man. 

He  then  sent  his  wife  and  children  to  his 
native  city,  Tsuyama  in  Okayama  Prefecture, 
for  a  while,  and  when  he  was  searching  for 
work  he  read  the  poster  of  my  Union  on  the 
street,  and  came  to  me.  He  began  to  work  in 
the  Union  immediately  with  the  bright  hope 
to  prepare  a  new  home  for  his  dear  ones.  He 
had  entered  into  the  boarding  house  in  No- 
vember, 1909,  and  by  his  hard  effort  he  suc- 
ceeded in  providing  a  small  house  to  live  in, 
and  called  his  eldest  girl  to  help  him  already. 

MR.    Y.    JINZENJI. 

Mr.  Jinzenji  is  another  one  who  have  a 
special  history  to  be  described.  He  was  born 
in  an  old  and  rich  family,  in  the  Jinzenji  vil- 
lage, Kochi  Prefecture,  forty-three  years  ago. 
In  his  youth  he  received  a  good  education,  and 
graduated  from  the  Kochi  Normal  School  and 
the  Imperial  Agricultural  College.     But  after 


IN  DARKNESS  35 

his  parents  had  died,  and  he  became  the  sole 
master  of  that  great  wealth,  he  delivered 
himself  up  to  wantonness  and  squandered  all 
his  property,  which  had  been  laid  up  through 
many  ages  by  his  ancestors. 

When  he  repented  of  his  misconduct,  how- 
ever, it  was  too  late,  and  he  found  himself  in 
the  depth  of  poverty.  He  then  left  his  native 
place,  and  went  out  to  Ibaraki  Prefecture, 
which  is  notable  for  its  richness  of  coal  mines. 
There  he  engaged  in  the  mine  business  for 
more  than  ten  years,  with  great  zeal  to  re- 
cover his  lost  wealth.  Though  there  were 
some  ups  and  downs,  he  fell  more  and  more 
into  the  bottom  of  misery,  and  became  utterly 
helpless  at  the  beginning  of  this  year. 

He  came  out  to  Tokyo,  but  there  no  better 
fate  waited  him,  and  at  last  he  determined 
to  commit  suicide  in  despair  by  throwing  him- 
self into  the  sea  at  Shinagawa.  On  the  eve- 
ning of  the  15th  January  he  left  his  lodg- 
ing in  Ushigome,  and  went  out  to  search  for 
a  suitable  place  for  death.  Fortunately,  how- 
ever, it  was  ebb  tide,  when  he  arrived  at 
Shinagawa  by  the  tram-car,  and  therefore  he 
directed  his  steps,  without  any  will  of  his  own, 
toward  Omori  along  the  seaside. 


36  THEY  THAT  SAT 

It  was  a  very  cold  and  dreary  winter  night, 
and  the  snow  began  to  fall  heavily.  He  was 
walking  in  an  absent-minded  state,  and 
reached  to  Omori  at  midnight.  All  the  stores 
and  houses  were  shut,  nobody  was  seen  on  the 
street,  and  the  wind  was  cold  and  high,  the 
snow  flakes  falling  in  every  direction;  a  truly 
lonesome  scene  it  was !  While  he  was  think- 
ing how  to  die,  he  found,  to  his  surprise,  that 
a  man  was  standing  before  him  under  the 
eaves  of  a  house.  He  then  approached  and 
asked  him  who  he  was.  It  was  a  young  man, 
who  came  from  Kasukabe  town,  drawing  a 
large  cart  to  carry  merchandise  to  Yokohama, 
where  he  must  arrive  before  nine  in  the  fol- 
lowing morning.  But  being  checked  by  this 
snow  storm,  he  was  greatly  harassed,  and  was 
at  a  loss  as  to  what  to  do.  He  told  that  his 
parents  had  died  when  he  was  quite  young, 
and  he  was  living  with  his  grandfather,  who 
is  very  ill,  and  for  whose  sake  he  was  striv- 
ing against  all  the  worldly  distress  in  this 
manner. 

Hearing  the  story  of  this  poor  young  fel- 
low, Mr.  Jinzenji  was  much  ashamed,  and 
found  that  there  were  much  more  unfortunate 
persons  in  this  world  than  himself,  and  under- 


IN  DARKNESS  37 

stood  that  it  was  the  voice  of  God  to  encour- 
age him.  So  he  gave  up  his  weak  purpose 
and  determined  to  try  once  more  his  fortune. 
He  began  to  work  at  once,  and  started  for 
Yokohama,  with  this  young  man,  rendering 
him  help  to  draw  the  cart  through  the  whirl- 
ing snow. 

After  searching  for  work  in  vain,  he  re- 
turned to  Tokyo,  and  by  the  kindness  of  an 
officer  of  the  Salvation  Army  he  was  intro- 
duced to  Mr.  K.  Ozawa,  a  member  of  my 
Union,  and  w^as  sent  to  me.  He  has  con- 
fessed all  his  past  sins,  and  asked  for  help. 
I  gave  him  work  immediately,  and  he  has  been 
working  happily  ever  since  as  the  member  of 
the  Union. 

MR.   T.    TANABE. 

Mr.  T.  Tanabe  is  one  who  was  saved  very 
early  in  the  Union.  When  I  had  held  the 
first  meeting  of  the  Union  on  the  ist  of  April, 
1907,  in  the  house  of  a  laborer,  thirteen  bodies 
were  present  at  it,  and  Mr.  Tanabe  was  one 
of  them.  He  was  a  man  who  did  not  attract 
my  attention  specially,  but  looked  to  us  to  be 
a  man  of  avarice.     At  the  beginning  of  this 


38  THEY  THAT  SAT 

year,  however,  I  found  that  there  was  the  rea- 
son for  it.  On  a  Sunday,  in  April,  this  year, 
he  came  into  my  vestry  after  the  service  was 
closed  and  reported  to  me  that  his  elder  sister 
had  been  a  harlot  in  the  city  of  Niigata,  and 
that  he  had  been  working  with  all  his  might 
to  rescue  her.  She  took  up  such  a  disgraceful 
profession  with  mere  hope  to  help  her  poor 
sick  father  when  her  brothers  were  yet  young 
and  the  family  was  in  a  helpless  state.  She 
was  staying  in  such  a  sad  condition  until  the 
money  which  her  father  had  received  in  ad- 
vance should  be  paid  back. 

When  Mr.  Tanabe  became  our  member,  and 
his  heart  was  enlightened,  he  felt  that  it  was 
his  duty  to  save  his  sister  from  that  shameful 
position.  When  his  younger  brother  came  to 
Tokyo,  and  became  our  member  also  by  his 
influence,  they  both  united  to  devote  them- 
selves with  admirable  zeal  to  the  noble  work, 
though  they  kept  it  in  secrecy,  till  they  had 
succeeded  in  it  at  last.  All  the  members  of 
the  Union  were  also  much  surprised  and 
showed  them  their  profound  respect  and 
praise  when  they  heard  it. 


IN  DARKNESS  39 


A  POOR  SICK  YOUNG  MAN. 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of  Lent  in  this  year 
that  a  man  sent  to  me  a  poor  sick  person, 
Iseji  Kato,  who  looked  as  if  he  was  ready  to 
die  in  a  short  time.  I  was  much  perplexed 
and  murmured  that  the  man  is  too  foolish  to 
bring  him  to  any  one  like  myself,  who  was  not 
a  physician,  and  not  to  a  charitable  hospital. 
But  as  it  was  too  late  in  the  evening,  Mr. 
Gonda,  the  director  of  the  boarding  house, 
was  compelled  to  make  him  stay  in  it  that 
night.  The  young  man  was  extremely  pleased 
by  it,  and  told  that  it  was  for  the  first  time 
he  could  lie  down  in  such  a  warm  bed  and 
receive  such  sympathetic  treatment.  It  seemed 
that  his  words  were  not  mere  flattery,  for  he 
looked  to  be  so  very  grateful  that  his  words 
became  choked  in  his  throat  as  his  talk  went 
on,  and  at  last  bursted  into  loud  cry  with 
thankful  tears.  Noticing  his  hearty  sincerity, 
I  inquired  about  his  matter  and  heard  of  his 
previous  sad  history. 

Nothing  was  known  by  him  about  his 
mother  except  that  she  came  from  elsewhere 
to  Sawane,   a   village  in  Saitama-prefecture. 


40  THEY  THAT  SAT 

She  has  supported  herself  and  the  child  by  her 
own  work  of  sewing,  until  he  grew  up  to  the 
age  of  five  years,  and  then  she  died.  Being 
left  helpless  as  a  poor  orphan,  he  exerted  him- 
self for  his  existence  and  grew  up  in  a  most 
painful  manner.  He  worked  as  if  he  were  a 
slave  in  the  house  of  the  farmer,  Jinsaku 
Sakurai,  where  his  mother  died.  But  when 
he  became  sickly  and  weak  he  was  driven 
away  by  the  merciless  master  and  came  to 
Tokyo.  While  he  was  wandering  about  in  the 
city  his  energy  was  exhausted  and  he  fell  to 
the  ground  perfectly  helpless. 

When  we  heard  such  a  pitiable  story  we  all 
thought  that  God  had  sent  him  to  us  to  render 
him  every  possible  help.  To  take  the  first 
step,  it  was  to  inquire  about  his  disease  and 
health,  and  made  a  physician  examine  him. 
It  became  clear  that  the  nature  of  his  illness 
was  not  fatal,  though  his  health  now  is  in 
the  most  dangerous  state  by  the  long  want  of 
nourishment. 

So  I  have  told  all  the  members  of  the  Union 
that  he  might  be  saved  if  we  would  keep  this 
Lent  with  the  spirit  of  love  and  give  him  our 
life  blood  as  a  sacrifice  for  him.  It  was  our 
delightful  work,  and  with  the  forty  days  and 


IN  DARKNESS  41 

forty  nights,  the  man,  who  had  nothing  but 
sure  death  to  wait  for,  was  saved  by  the  mi- 
raculous power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
wrought  in  the  hearts  of  those  selfish  persons 
who  had  been  merciless  thieves,  gamblers, 
drunkards,  and  so  forth,  letting  them  render 
him  that  urgent  help  cheerfully. 

Now  he  has  become  stronger  and  is  able 
to  work  as  other  people.  Whenever  we  look 
at  him  we  can  not  help  associating  him  with 
that  grateful  memory  of  our  privileged  work 
during  the  Lent  of  this  year. 

A  POOR  WORKING  MAN^  G.  IRIYAMA. 

I  wish  to  add  one  more  story  of  a  poor 
working  man,  G.  Iriyama.  Some  three  years 
ago  there  lived  a  working  man  by  the  name 
of  G.  Iriyama  not  far  from  the  meeting  house 
of  the  Union.  He  was  working  in  a  glass 
factory.  One  hot  day  in  the  summer  his  wife 
prepared  a  kind  of  food  with  flour,  which  she 
bought  from  a  shop  by  sending  her  eldest 
son. 

When  this  innocent  boy  was  on  his  way 
home  he  found  on  the  street  some  flour  much 
like  that  he  had  just  got.     So  he  scooped  it 


42  THEY  THAT  SAT 

up  with  his  hands  and  added  it  carelessly  to 
his  own.  It  was  arsenic  acid,  a  deadly  poison. 
And  no  sooner  the  wife,  unfortunate  victim, 
ate  one  piece  of  the  food  than  she  began  to 
feel  the  stomach  ache,  and  the  pain  increased 
every  minute.  The  frightened  children  cried 
out;  all  the  neighbors  assembled  by  the  voice; 
the  doctor  and  her  husband  were  sent  for. 
They  all  assembled  together  around  her,  but 
there  was  no  way  nor  time  to  find  out  the 
remedy.  And  thus,  after  awful  torments  for 
about  two  hours,  she  expired,  surrounded  by 
the  sobbing  and  crying  family  and  friends. 

The  loss  of  his  wife,  however,  was  only  the 
beginning  of  this  man's  calamities.  The 
youngest  son  was  but  one  year  old,  and  unless 
there  was  some  one  kind  enough  to  take  it 
from  his  arms,  he  could  not  go  to  his  work. 
But  it  was  impossible  to  find  out  so  kind  a 
person  among  his  companions,  for  they  were 
also  too  busy  in  the  struggle  for  their  own 
existence.  And  when,  moreover,  the  other  two 
children  became  very  ill,  he  was  left  so  poor 
and  helpless.  Being  thi  -^wn  into  such  despera- 
tion, he  understood  t.iat  this  world  is  full  of 
miseries  and  truly  a  hell,  where  there  is  no 
love  nor  sympathy,  and  the  whole  inhabitants 


THE  MAN  BORN  AGAIN  AND  HIS  FAMILY 


IN  DARKNESS  43 

in  it  appeared,  in  his  hopeless  eyes,  as  the 
wild  and  remorseless  beasts. 

In  such  agony  he  made  up  his  mind  to  go 
into  river  to  die  rather  than  to  endure  the 
pain  to  see  his  sick  and  hungry  children  with- 
out any  means  to  help  them  in  his  hands,  for 
he  thought  that  if  he  would  disappear  himself 
from  this  world  the  children  might  be  rather 
happy,  being  taken  into  the  hands  of  some 
charitable  person.  So  he  sold  all  his  remain- 
ing articles,  and  with  that  money  he  roamed 
about  in  this  city  with  them  for  two  days,  en- 
tertaining them  with  the  last  fatherly  love, 
and  at  last  he  bade  farewell  in  his  breaking 
heart,  in  disguise,  and  turned  his  tear-stream- 
ing face  away  from  them  and  ran  away,  leav- 
ing them  at  the  corner  of  some  street  near 
Asakusa  Park. 

It  was  just  at  this  last  moment  when  one 
of  the  workers  of  the  Union  met  him  on  the 
way  to  the  real  hell.  Having  inquired  the 
circumstances,  he  was  led  to  us,  and  God  gave 
us  means  to  help  him,  responding  to  our  ear- 
nest prayers,  and  the  heart  of  this  once  de- 
spairing father  is  now  looking  bright  with 
joy  and  hope,  having  been  baptized  by  me. 


44  THEY  THAT  SAT 


IX. 

The  Work  for  Children  in  Slums. 

In  carrying  on  my  work  for  these  poor 
people  I  understood  that  it  was  most  needful 
to  give  religious  instruction  to  their  little  chil- 
dren, but  at  first  I  found  it  difficult  to  start 
an  efficient  meeting  for  them.  I  had  to  hold 
it  on  the  same  night,  an  hour  before  the 
adults  should  be  gathered,  twice  a  month.  But 
to  my  surprise  they  were  more  unmanageable 
than  I  had  thought.  They  were  so  thoroughly 
accustomed  to  the  vicious  and  lawless  life  in 
their  homes  that  we  were  at  our  wits'  end  to 
know  how  to  teach  them,  for  when  they  as- 
sembled together  in  a  room  they  cried,  laughed, 
romped  or  blackguarded  each  other,  without 
listening  to  any  of  our  words,  and  moreover 
some  of  them  were  carrying  little  babies  on 
their  backs  to  add  their  noisy  crying  to  this 
abundant  vociferation.  Those  who  seemed  so 
gentle  and  quiet  among  them  were  either  sick 
or  hungry. 


IN  DARKNESS  45 

My  co-worker  told  me  that  he  saw  once  in 
a  slum  one  drunkard,  who  sent  his  boy  to  the 
charitable  school  one  morning  without  giving 
him  any  food  to  take  beforehand,  and  when 
the  boy  came  home  at  noon  and  teased  for 
dinner,  rebuked  the  boy  violently,  saying,  **Be 
quiet!  Even  your  father  has  not  taken  his 
breakfast  yet,  except  drinking  'sake'  only." 
What  a  brutal  slave  to  drinking!  What  an 
unfortunate  poor  boy! 

Some  children  in  the  meeting  were  seem- 
ingly weak  and  sickly,  but  their  parents  were 
supposed  to  be  unable  to  take  any  care  for 
them,  leaving  them  to  their  own  fate.  A  boy 
who  came  out  from  a  poor  large  family  looked 
to  be  very  tired,  and  when  we  called  at  his 
house  we  found  that  his  father  had  been  long 
ill,  and  understood  that  he  was  in  sad  and 
pitiable  state  of  hunger. 

It  is  impossible  to  mention  here  all  such  in- 
stances about  these  unhappy  children.  When 
I  looked  at  them  at  the  meeting  and  found 
that  I  was  powerless  to  give  them  any  ma- 
terial help  and  comfort,  I  could  not  help  break- 
ing into  tears  from  the  sympathy  that  I  felt 
in  my  heart,  and  it  is  a  burden  almost  greater 
than  I  can  bear. 


46  THEY    THAT    SAT 

Those  wayward  and  wretched  children  used 
to  come  to  attend  our  meeting  only  to  excite 
their  own  curiosity  by  singing  out  songs  or 
by  looking  at  the  pictures,  which  we  occasion- 
ally show  them  by  the  magic-lantern. 

The  ordinary  hymns  of  our  church  are  too 
hard  to  understand  their  meanings  for  these 
children,  as  well  as  adults  about  here,  and  are 
not  of  much  use  for  the  meetings  of  the 
Union,  and  so  I  was  composing  special  ones, 
which  are  suitable  to  excite  their  interest  by 
their  purport  as  well  as  by  the  tunes.  As  I 
got  a  few  of  them  by  the  kind  aid  of  my 
friends,  I  have  committed  them  to  print  and 
got  a  nice  little  book,  the  ''Union  Songs/'  just 
this  month,  August,  19 lo. 

Little  by  little,  however,  this  clamorous 
meeting  of  the  children  became  peaceful,  and 
after  a  few  months  it  changed  into  an  utterly 
different  state.  The  children  became  much 
more  courteous,  and  listened  to  our  teaching 
with  keen  interest.  The  change  of  their  daily 
life  was  also  so  manifest  that  their  parents 
were  surprised  by  it,  and  many  of  them  came 
to  thank  us  for  it.  I  saw  a  mother  one  day 
who  heard  such  a  good  rumor  of  it  in  her  so- 
ciety,  brought   her   rude   boy   with   her,   and 


IN   DARKNESS  47 

asked  us,  saying,  *'Is  it  this  house  where  as 
they  say  I  may  apply  to  make  this  boy  good 
for  something?" 

At  present  I  see  many  mothers  who  bring 
their  children  at  every  meeting.  From  the 
summer  of  last  year  I  have  increased  the  num- 
ber of  the  meetings  for  these  children,  and 
succeeded  in  starting  the  Sunday  school  for 
them,  opening  it  from  2  P.  M.  on  every  Sun- 
day. The  number  of  those  children  who  are 
present  at  every  meeting  is  now  from  50  to 
70.  We  are  obliged  to  limit  their  number  by 
the  reason  that  I  have  no  house  large  enough 
to  receive  more,  as  it  is  in  the  case  for  adults. 

We  had  a  very  nice  Christmas  with  these 
poor  children  last  year  for  the  first  time.  They 
looked  very  grateful  and  happy,  when  they 
received  such  nice  presents  as  they  had  never 
seen  elsewhere. 


48  THEY  THAT  SAT 

X. 

A  Visit  to  a  Slum. 

It  was  my  long  hope  to  become  the  friend 
of  the  wicked  villains,  with  the  hope  to  con- 
vert their  hearts,  and  I  wanted  to  pay  my 
visit  to  the  slums,  where  they  specially  lived. 
But  it  seemed  very  hard  to  make  any  success- 
ful visit  to  them  without  the  help  of  my  con- 
verted laborers. 

Just  after  I  had  started  the  work  of  the 
Union  the  first  villain  to  whom  my  eyes  were 
directed  was  the  jinrikisha-man,  whose  name 
was  Hijikata.  He  was  a  fierce  looking, 
wicked  fellow,  who  was  always  intoxicated 
while  he  had  money  in  his  pockets.  His  wife 
had  been  taken  away  by  a  disease  many  years 
ago,  leaving  three  children  behind  her. 
Though  he  might  receive  god  wages  for  his 
daily  w^ork,  he  could  not  bring  them  to  his 
house,  spending  all  the  money  merely  for 
drinking.  He  was  not,  however,  without  tears 
of  pity  for  his  children,  and  when  he  started 
from  his  house  for  his  work  in  morning  he 


IN  DARKNESS  49 

left  many  kind  words  of  love  to  them,  but  he 
lost  the  sense  to  feel  pity  for  those  who  are 
waiting  for  his  return  with  hunger  as  soon 
as  he  began  to  drink.  Some  members  of  our 
Union,  knowing  it,  had  been  accustomed  to 
give  food  to  them  whenever  they  passed  by 
the  house  on  the  way  of  their  trade.  At  last 
two  of  the  younger  children  became  very  weak 
and  died,  but  the  eldest  girl  was  sent  to  be 
employed  in  the  spinning  house  and  for- 
tunately survived  them. 

At  the  end  of  the  summer,  1907,  there  was 
a  flood,  and  all  the  people  in  his  slum  were 
moved  to  the  school  house  near  by.  While 
he  was  staying  there  he  became  a  friend  with 
a  woman,  and  after  the  flood  he  took  her  home 
as  his  second  wife,  who  brought  her  two  chil- 
dren with  her.  After  a  few  months,  how- 
ever, she  disappeared  with  her  own  children 
and  brought  away  all  her  articles  when  he  was 
abroad  at  his  work. 

He  then  learned  that  he  had  been  deceived 
by  her,  who  had  her  real  husband  and  came 
only  to  stay  in  his  house  for  a  while,  for  her 
husband  was  a  thief  and  had  been  in  prison, 
but  as  he  was  released  from  it  she  returned  to 
him. 


50  THEY  THAT  SAT 

So  he  got  very  angry  and  determined  to 
kill  the  faithless  woman.  Casting  off  his 
work  and  taking  a  dagger  under  his  clothes 
he  began  to  search  for  her  with  bloody  eyes 
day  after  day.  When  we  heard  of  it,  and 
were  wanting  to  meet  him,  Mr.  Gonda  saw 
him  on  a  street  and  brought  him  to  his  house. 
He  endeavored  to  quiet  the  rageful  man,  and 
succeeded  to  make  him  understand  that  it  was 
too  foolish  to  become  such  a  dreadful  sinner 
by  her,  and  sent  him  to  his  home,  plucking 
away  the  dagger  from  him. 

Catching  this  good  opportunity,  I  wanted 
to  call  on  him  at  his  house,  and  to  hold  a 
meeting  for  the  people  about  there  at  once. 
But  Mr.  Gonda  told  me  that  it  was  yet  dan- 
gerous, and  wanted  me  to  let  him  make  the 
preparation  for  it.  For  there  lived  a  band  of 
gamblers  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  house  of 
Bijikata,  and  they  were  so  violent  and  igno- 
rant that  Mr.  Gonda  feared  that  they  would 
attack  us  while  we  were  holding  the  meeting 
there. 

At  that  time  Mr.  Gonda's  trade  was  to  sell 
some  articles  of  food  going  round  the  streets. 
When  he  came  to  pass  the  gamblers'  house  one 
day  one  of  them  came  out  and,  wanting  to 


•       IN  DARKNESS  51 

buy  his  articles,  higgled  the  price  of  them. 
Taking  this  opportunity,  Mr.  Gonda  scoffed 
at  him,  saying,  "It  is  not  only  impossible  to 
lower  the  price  for  you,  but  I  do  not  even 
like  to  sell  my  articles  to  such  a  person  as 
yourself."  This  challenge  of  course  provoked 
the  gambler  as  he  expected,  and  their  discus- 
sion grew  more  and  more  harsh,  and  at  last 
the  gambler  demanded  that  Mr.  Gonda  should 
come  into  his  house  to  explain  more  about  the 
matter,  for  he  told  him,  *'The  Son  of  God 
would  not  like  anything  to  do  with  such  sin- 
fulness." 

It  was  truly  a  dangerous  risk.  "Without 
entering  into  the  tiger's  den  one  can  not  catch 
the  tiger's  young,"  so  says  our  proverb.  And 
our  brave  and  faithful  soldier  of  the  cross 
had  entered  into  it.  In  the  house  he  found 
the  villains  were  just  in  the  heat  of  their 
sinful  business,  and  they  were  much  surprised 
when  he  appeared  suddenly  before  them,  and 
encircled  him  ready  to  do  violence  at  any 
moment. 

He  then  prayed  earnestly  for  our  Lord's 
help,  and  began  his  eloquent  speech  calmly  in 
the  following  words : 

"Dear  brethren!     Why  do  you  think  it  is 


52  THEY  THAT  SAT 

strange  to  hear  that  I  called  myself  a  son  of 
God  ?  I  had  not  been  a  man  so  different  from 
you  all.  I  used  to  gamble;  I  used  to  drink; 
I  used  to  do  whatever  you  are  doing  to-day. 
I  have  had  all  the  experience  that  you  have 
now.  But  you  must  agree  with  me,  such  a 
licentious  life  never  affords  us  true  happiness. 

'T  could  never  send  my  children  to  school. 
I  often  left  my  family  in  hunger,  without  giv- 
ing them  anything  to  eat,  and  I  quarreled  day 
by  day  with  my  wife,  when  I  led  my  life  in 
your  present  way.  I  feel  that  my  life  was 
much  inferior  to  that  of  the  birds  and  beasts. 

''But,  dear  brethren,  when  I  became  a  mem- 
ber of  my  Union,  and  this  beautiful  badge 
on  my  breast  began  to  shine,  my  heart  was 
thoroughly  changed  by  the  miraculous  power 
of  God,  and  all  such  unhappy  elements  in  my 
house  were  cleared  off.  I  can  not  only  have 
money  enough  for  the  livelihood  of  my  fam- 
ily, but  I  am  able  to  contribute  some  of  it  to 
charitable  works  at  present. 

''Compare  this  with  my  former  condition, 
and  if  I  was  a  son  of  devil,  what  do  you  say 
I  am  to-day?  My  sincere  hope  for  you  all  is 
that  you  may  become  more  happy  men  than 
I  am  now,  by  the  merciful  help  of  our  God," 


IN  DARKNESS  53 

Hearing  this  kind,  fraternal  advice,  they 
were  much  surprised,  and  some  of  them  Vvrere 
so  much  moved  as  to  promise  to  come  to  our 
meeting.  This  is  a  good  explanation  of  how 
much  I  owe  to  the  earnest  and  faithful  service 
of  my  officers  in  doing  the  work  of  the  Union. 

The  way  to  the  slum  being  thus  open,  I  had 
visited  the  slum  in  the  afternoon  of  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday,  i6th  February,  1908,  and 
called  on  the  jinriksha-man's  house.  There 
are  many  kinds  of  jinriksha-men  in  this  city, 
and  he  belonged  to  the  worst  kind  of  them, 
which  we  call  the  "moro-shafu."  They  work 
only  in  night,  and  are  very  greedy  for  out- 
rageous gain  with  slightest  possible  work,  in 
the  darkest  side  of  our  society.  He  was 
then  sleeping,  and  by  our  invitation  he  came 
out  with  an  astonished  face,  and  was  obliged 
to  receive  us  into  his  house,  which  was  only 
one  room  of  intolerable  dirt,  with  lousy  mats, 
and  a  few  simple  articles  and  furniture  on  the 
floor. 

He  seemed  to  be  much  confused,  and  lost 
his  head  as  to  what  to  do.  Then  Mr.  Gonda 
introduced  me  to  him  very  solemnly  and  bade 
him  to  go  round  the  neighborhood  and  gather 
the  people  for  us.     While  he  went  out,  we 


54  THEY  THAT  SAT 

took  our  seats  in  the  room.  In  a  short  time 
he  came  home  with  his  neighbors,  and  they 
sat  around  me.  A  very  wry-faced  working 
man,  who  was  right  next  to  my  seat,  was  in- 
troduced to  me  by  Mr.  Gonda  with  such 
strange  words :  ''Sir,  this  is  a  man  who  abhors 
Christianity  so  bitterly  that  he  gave  me  a 
heavy  blow  with  a  club  the  other  day  when  I 
met  him  on  the  street  about  here." 

Being  thrashed  back  with  this  unexpected 
introduction  he  was  greatly  ashamed,  and 
nodded  his  head  unhesitatingly  before  me.  In 
answer  to  this  I  began  my  speech,  which  lasted 
for  more  than  an  hour.  While  I  was  speaking 
their  heads  were  dropping  lower  and  lower, 
and  to  my  surprise  I  found  that  they  were 
very  weak  in  their  hearts,  and  easily  sur- 
rendered to  us.  I  understood  also  that  they 
are  liable  to  become  slave  to  sins  easily  by  the 
same  reason — a  truly  pitiable  race,  who  want 
to  be  taken  care  of  by  us  constantly!  Vicious 
and  pitiless  as  the  master  of  this  house  was, 
he  fast  melted  into  a  flood  of  tears,  and  twice 
he  went  away,  while  I  was  speaking,  to  soothe 
his  troubled  conscience.  Among  the  crowding 
audience  outside  of  the  house  were  seen  those 
gamblers   to  whom  Mr.  Gonda  had  given  his 


IN  DARKNESS  55 

first  instruction  already.  The  meeting  was 
closed  with  my  prayer,  and  we  came  out  of 
the  house,  and  heard  the  voice  from  the  people 
outside,  which  said,  "Your  teaching  was  very 
useful  to  us  and  gave  us  the  good  instruction." 
All  the  members  of  the  Union  were  greatly 
encouraged  by  this  triumph,  and  began  to  fight 
against  the  enemy  with  more  vigor  and  con- 
fidence than  ever.  It  has  opened  the  way  be- 
fore us  to  push  our  steps  into  such  slums  in 
night  to  hold  the  open-air  meeting  with  no 
obstruction. 

September  2,  19 10. 


56  THEY  THAT  SAT 


XL 

The  Result  of  the  Flood  on  My  Work, 
beginning  of  the  overflow. 

Following  the  rainy  season  of  this  year,  suc- 
cessive storms  of  rain  have  been  experienced 
in  the  eastern  part  of  our  empire  throughout 
the  summer,  and  the  water  in  many  rivers  in 
and  about  Tokyo  awfully  increased  at  the  be- 
ginning of  August,  and  we  wtre  very  restless 
and  anxious  for  what  would  come  about. 

It  was  on  the  evening  of  nth  August  that 
the  Sumida  River  suddenly  began  to  overflow 
its  banks  at  last,  when  I  had  just  reached  my 
church  to  preach  on  my  way  home  from  Oji. 
Many  people  who  were  present  there  reported 
that  they  came  through  streets  which  were 
flooded  already  as  high  as  their  knees,  and  the 
matter  seemed  very  urgent.  So  I  decided  to 
suspend  the  meeting  and  proclaimed  that  those 
persons  who  came  from  lower  parts  of  the 
city  should  go  back  to  their  homes  and  others 


Q 


IN  DARKNESS  57 

to  visit  their  friends  in  the  dangerous  quarters 
to  render  them  help. 

The  field  of  my  work,  composed  of  the  two 
districts,  Honjo  and  Kukagawa,  is  the  lowest 
part  of  the  city,  lying  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  River  Sumida,  and  moreover  the  numer- 
ous canals  that  ran  through  it  in  every  direc- 
tion gave  the  flooding  water  great  facility  to 
submerge  the  whole  part  of  it  at  once. 

The  night  was  passed  by  the  terror-stricken 
inhabitants,  in  whole  part  of  these  two  dis- 
tricts, without  sleep  in  making  their  own  re- 
lief. On  the  next  morning,  however,  the  water 
seemed  to  increase  no  more,  and  their  hearts 
were  somewhat  tranquilized.  But  when  one 
danger  was  over  another  great  one  was 
coming. 

DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  TONE  BANK. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  next  day,  12th  Au- 
gust, at  about  three  o'clock,  we  received  a 
most  terrible  telegram  that  the  strong  embank- 
ment of  the  Tone  River  was  broken  at  a  spot 
about  twenty-five  miles  from  Tokyo,  and  its 
furious  water  was  rolling  down  toward  us  at 
its  full  speed.      We  had  a  dreadful  remem- 


58  THEY  THAT  SAT 

brance  that  it  was  broken  once,  about  one 
hundred  years  ago,  when  the  tremendous  dam- 
age ensued,  it  flooded  over  many  districts  of 
the  city,  as  high  as  fifteen  feet  at  some  places. 
Of  course,  the  telegram  caused  a  panic  of  the 
people,  and  in  the  mean  time  the  new  great 
force  of  that  water  arrived  and  the  flood  be- 
gan to  swell  suddenly. 

In  the  eastern  part  of  Honjo  district  the 
water  in  the  canals  soon  rose  many  feet  higher 
than  their  embankment  and  began  to  fall  down 
into  the  streets  in  the  shape  of  a  broad  cata- 
ract. So  that  it  flooded  there  so  suddenly  that 
a  man  in  Umemoricho,  for  instance,  whose 
wife  had  just  been  in  labor,  could  scarcely  lift 
her  up  on  a  shelf,  and  when  he  came  to  the 
child,  he  found  it  dead  in  the  merciless  water. 

A  poor  laborer,  who  had  been  living  in 
Oshima-machi,  had  a  girl  of  eight  years  old 
and  twins,  which  were  born  only  nine  days 
before  the  flood,  and  was  nursing  his  wife, 
who  was  seriously  ill.  When  he  found  the 
water  like  the  sea  around  his  house  he  was 
much  perplexed  how  to  make  good  their  es- 
cape by  his  single  power.  They  waded  a  long 
way  through  deep  water  in  dark  night,  direct- 
ing   their    steps    toward    higher    places,    but 


IN   DARKNESS  59 

everywhere  the  flood  became  higher  and 
higher,  and  they  were  forced  to  change  their 
refuges  three  times  in  a  night,  until  the  energy 
of  that  unfortunate  wife  was  at  last  exhausted 
and  she  died  the  next  morning.  In  what  con- 
dition of  distress  he  was  at  such  time  can 
better  be  imagined  than  I  can  describe. 

The  loss  of  his  wife  was  a  severe  blow  to 
this  poor  family.  The  man  lost  his  entire 
power  to  work  from  that  day,  having  these 
helpless  children  in  his  hands  to  be  taken  care 
of  by  himself  alone,  and  the  consequence  of  it 
was  the  starvation  of  the  whole  family!  He 
was  one  of  the  poor  sufferers  from  the  flood, 
who  were  reported  to  me  by  our  members,  and 
I  tried  to  help  him  by  paying  the  expenses 
of  a  foster-mother  for  the  twins,  until  they 
died  one  after  another  before  the  end  of  this 
year. 

THE  PROVIDENTIAL  PROTECTION  OF  GOD  OF  THE 
MEMBERS  OF  THE  L.  R.  U.  IN  THE  CALAMITY. 

Almost  all  the  houses  of  the  members  of 
the  Union  who  lived  in  these  districts  were  in- 
undated, but  they  fought  this  natural  enemy 
with  the  same  faith  and  perseverance  as  in 


6o  THEY  THAT  SAT 

their  daily  life,  and  the  flood  itself  seemed  to 
have  been  a  great  baptism  to  my  work,  and 
renewed  our  faith  by  the  practical  experience 
of  God's  gracious  providence  revealed  very 
clearly  in  it. 

Before  I  describe  a  few  instances  of  that 
grace,  however,  I  wish  to  deal  with  an  example 
that  taught  us  how  unavailing  human  power 
and  contrivance  were  at  such  a  moment. 

There  lived  a  rich  man,  Mr.  K.  Watanabe, 
in  Rameido  (eastern  end  of  Tokyo),  who  had 
built  a  fine  large  house  and  moved  to  it  a  few 
months  before  the  flood.  When  his  house  was 
inundated  a  large  boat  was  sent  to  him  from 
his  kindred  to  save  his  family  out  of  the  dan- 
ger. All  the  members  of  his  family  climbed 
into  it  at  once,  and  were  about  to  leave  the 
place.  The  poor  people  around,  who  were 
desperately  crying  for  the  help  from  the  top 
of  their  houses,  saw  this  happy  family,  amaz- 
ing at  the  wonderful  efficiency  of  the  power  of 
gold,  and  complained  of  their  own  sad  fortune. 

Receiving  such  a  melancholy  send-off,  the 
rich  man's  boat  started,  rowed  by  a  strong 
crew,  and  rode  down  over  the  rapid  stream 
along  the  streets  of  Taihei-cho  and  Umemori- 
cho,  and  came  near  to  the  Honjo  Railway  Sta- 


IN  DARKNESS  6i 

tion.  But  when  it  was  steering  round  the  cor- 
ner of  Nagasaki  bridge  it  went  whirling  round 
at  the  mercy  of  the  angry  eddy,  and  at  last 
was  overturned.  Eighteen  bodies  in  it  were 
all  scattered  about  in  the  furious  torrent  be- 
fore hundreds  of  spectators,  who  sent  out 
many  life  boats  in  an  instant  and  endeavored 
to  save  them. 

Notwithstanding  of  their  great  efforts,  the 
eldest  girl  of  the  rich  man,  with  many  thou- 
sands of  yens  of  money,  and  a  servant  were 
by  no  means  saved,  and  the  body  of  the  former 
was  found  afterwards  in  the  canal  near  my 
house,  about  a  mile  below,  and  the  servant's 
under  a  raft  of  timbers  not  far  from  the  spot. 

This  unexpected  news  must  have  been  a 
great  surprise  to  those  poor  people  in  Rameido, 
who  found  themselves  rather  in  safety  on 
their  houses,  and  they  understood  that  they 
should  be  grateful  that  they  were  not  so  rich 
as  this  unfortunate  family.  Such  events  oc- 
curred everywhere  in  the  flood,  and  I  have  no 
time  to  describe  them  all.  So  now  to  com- 
pare with  this  instance  of  the  unreliability  of 
human  power,  I  wish  to  return  to  the  accounts 
of  our  poor  friends  who  were  saved  by  God 
even  in  the  most  dangerous  circumstances. 


62  THEY  THAT  SAT 


MR.  SHIGEKICHI  HASHIMOTO. 

Mr.  S.  Hashimoto  is  a  typical  member  of 
the  Union,  full  of  the  spirit  of  self-help  and 
self-respect.  Formerly  he  worked  in  the 
Hon  jo  Railway  Station  in  this  city,  and  had  a 
most  unfortunate  accident. 

The  accident  happened  on  the  15th  January, 
1900,  when  a  train  was  just  running  into  the 
depot.  At  that  moment  he  lost  his  footing 
from  the  platform,  and  no  sooner  had  he 
fallen  flat  upon  the  rail  than  the  train  went 
over  him,  cutting  his  feet  off  by  the  middle 
of  the  thighs.  Though  he  was  once  in  a  most 
critical  condition,  he  held  on  to  life,  and  under- 
went a  long  surgical  treatment  in  the  Roto 
Hospital,  and  recovered  his  health  again.  All 
expenses  in  the  hospital  were  paid  for  him  by 
the  railway  company,  but  as  he  could  not  re- 
ceive a  sufficient  subsidy  for  future  relief,  he 
soon  fell  into  great  privation  with  his  family, 
and  encountered  unspeakable  hardships  and 
pains  for  many  years.  But  all  adverse  cir- 
cumstances could  never  conquer  this  feetless 
man,  and  I  used  to  encourage,  whenever  I 
visited   him.       Carrying  a   trade   in   a   small 


IN  DARKNESS  63 

scale,  he  supported  his  family,  then  the  old 
mother,  the  wife  and  a  child.  At  the  same 
time  he  devoted  himself  to  learning  with  great 
perseverance,  and  at  last  he  opened  a  private 
school  at  the  eastern  end  of  Honjo  district, 
and  now  is  teaching  English,  Chinese,  mathe- 
matics and  book-keeping.  His  wife  is  also  an 
admirable  woman.  It  is  by  her  faithful  ser- 
vice that  he  attained  his  end.  His  mother 
died  when  they  were  at  the  depth  of  their 
poverty,  and  he  has  three  children  at  present. 
In  lucky  or  unlucky  days,  he  is  always  in  a 
most  happy  frame  of  mind,  and  every  member 
of  the  Union  who  called  on  him  was  encour- 
aged by  his  good  humor  and  faith.  He  is 
truly  a  living  sermon  in  my  Union. 

However  vigorous  in  his  spirit  he  might  be 
his  house  was  in  the  most  unfavorable  posi- 
tion in  the  flood,  not  far  from  the  said  rich 
man,  and,  moreover,  his  wife  had  labor  only 
three  days  before  the  overflow.  Even  his 
eldest  son  was  only  seven  years  old,  and  there- 
fore there  was  no  one  who  was  strong  enough 
to  do  any  work  in  such  calamity.  So  I  was 
in  the  greatest  anxiety  about  this  helpless 
family  from  the  beginning.  Therefore  I  sent 
two    strong   young   men,   when   the    Sumida 


64  THEY  THAT  SAT 

River  began  to  overflow,  on  the  evening  of 
nth  August.  But  at  that  time  there  was  not 
so  much  water  in  Kameide,  and  his  house  was 
in  safety.  On  the  next  day,  however,  when 
the  bank  of  Tone  River  was  broken,  the  water 
from  it  had  directly  rushed  into  his  part 
and  submerged  his  house  immediately, 
before  I  could  send  the  relief  hands. 
When  two  strong  men  ventured  to  cross  the 
dangers  on  the  way  and  visited  him  on 
that  night,  I  had  not  the  slightest  hope  of 
his  safety. 

When  they  reached  there  they  found,  to 
their  despair,  that  his  house  was  flooded  al- 
ready, and  that  the  rapid  torrent  with  many 
floating  materials  was  dashing  mercilessly 
against  its  closed  doors.  But  when  a  door  was 
open,  to  their  ecstasy  and  surprise  they  saw 
the  whole  family  in  ease  on  a  strong  shelf, 
which  was  constructed  very  well.  The  new- 
born child,  knowing  not  anything  of  this 
world,  was  peacefully  sleeping  with  its  mother 
in  the  bed,  only  one  foot  high  above  the  roar- 
ing water,  which  was  running  through  the 
house  from  the  front  door  down  into  the 
canal  behind.  But  whence  had  such  a  timely 
relief  come?     The   question  in  the  visitors' 


THE  FEETLESS  OFFICER  OF  THE  UNION  AND  HIS  FAMILY 
WITH  THE  BABY  BORN  IN  THE  FLOOD 


IN   DARKNESS  65 

hearts  could  never  be  solved.  It  was  God 
who  sent  it  actually. 

A  friend  of  Mr.  Hashimoto,  who  lived  far 
away  in  Tabata  village,  had  come  out  to  Tokyo 
on  that  day,  without  thinking  anything  about 
him,  but  when  that  person  saw  the  telegram, 
posted  up  by  the  side  of  Azuma  bridge,  and 
learned  that  the  Tone  embankment  was  broken 
just  a  few  minutes  before,  a  thought  flashed 
into  his  heart,  and  felt  a  great  necessity  to 
render  his  assistance  to  his  maimed  friend. 
He  hurried  on  hither  at  rapid  pace,  with  two 
other  bodies,  who  joined  him  while  on  the 
road  by  his  request.  When  they  have  arrived 
here,  no  drop  of  water  was  seen  around  his 
house,  and  Mr.  Hashimoto  could  not  under- 
stand why  they  did  come  in  so  hasty  a  manner. 

But  when  they  had  built  the  high  tempo- 
rary floor,  and  were  putting  up  the  family  and 
furniture  on  it  one  by  one,  the  water  began 
to  rise  up  at  enormous  speed  and  ran  into  the 
house.  It  submerged  the  floor  at  last,  when 
their  work  was  just  finished.  Thus  this  help- 
less family  was  saved  out  of  the  great  danger 
beyond  all  human  expectation. 


66  THEY  THAT  SAT 


OTHER  FAMILIES  IN  DANGER. 

There  were  many  other  families  among  the 
members  of  my  church  and  the  Union,  in  this 
quarter,  who  were  no  less  in  need  of  help,  and 
though  my  heart  was  bursting  with  anxiety 
for  their  fate,  I  could  not  get  time  and  hands 
enough  to  do  so  many  things  at  once  at  such 
an  urgent  moment. 

Among  them  I  can  count  Mr.  Kurahashi, 
who  was  a  blind  man;  Mr.  Otaki,  Mr.  Tani- 
shima  and  Mr.  Majima,  who  were  in  the  worst 
part  of  the  flood ;  and  Mr.  Sakurai,  who  missed 
his  mother  and  sister  in  the  water,  when  they 
were  escaping  from  the  danger  in  night,  and 
other  sick  men.  But  when  circumstances  al- 
lowed me  to  visit  around  I  found  them  all  in 
safety,  and  none  of  them  lost  even  simple 
pieces  of  their  furniture,  obviously  protected 
by  the  providential  hand  of  the  Almighty, 
while  many  folks  around  them  were  receiv- 
ing much  damage  to  their  property  and  even 
to  their  lives.  This  clear  contrast  gave  us  a 
profound  instruction  and  made  our  confidence 
in  the  words  of  God  much  stronger  than  ever, 
as  in  the  time  of  Noah. 


IN  DARKNESS  67 


THE    TRIAL    OF    OUR    MEMBERS     COURAGE. 

There  could  never  have  been  before  so  good 
opportunity  as  this  great  calamity  to  test  the 
faith  and  courage  of  our  members.  I  would 
conclude  this  description  of  the  flood  by  re- 
cording the  interesting  accounts  of  their  strug- 
gles in  this  battlefield  of  our  faith. 

MR.  D.  OTAKI. 

Mr.  D.  Otaki  was  a  poor  artisan,  living  with 
his  wife  and  two  children  in  the  most  danger- 
ous quarter,  as  was  said  above.  His  work  is 
to  make  toys  in  his  own  little  house.  From 
the  morning  of  12th  August  the  water  was  in- 
creasing little  by  little,  and  his  neighbors  were 
in  great  consternation,  and  no  one  could  take 
their  works.  But  as  the  member  of  the  L. 
R.  U.,  he  worked  assiduously  to  make  up  some 
toys  before  3  P.  M.,  as  he  promised  to  his 
customer,  while  he  ordered  his  wife  to  pre- 
pare food  for  many  days.  When  his  work 
was  finished  he  carried  out  the  products  by  a 
cart  and  brought  them  to  the  customer.  He 
conveyed  also  his  elder  boy,  important  furni- 


68  THEY  THAT  SAT 

tiire  and  clothes  by  the  same  cart  to  intrust 
them  to  the  care  of  a  friend  on  his  way.  See- 
ing his  distress  to  draw  that  heavy  cart 
through  muddy  and  flooded  road,  his  wife 
joined  him  to  push  the  cart  from  behind,  leav- 
ing a  baby  to  the  care  of  their  neighbor  for 
a  while. 

When  they  returned  home  and  were  making 
precautions  for  the  flood  the  water  from  Tone 
just  reached  them  and  increased  at  every  mo- 
ment. Then  the  family  climbed  up  higher  and 
higher  as  the  water  rose,  until  they  were 
driven  into  the  ceiling,  in  which  they  were 
trembling  with  terror,  for  the  water  came  so 
high  up  that  they  could  reach  its  surface  with 
their  hands.  As  it  was  a  little  house  of  only 
one  story,  there  was  no  higher  place  for  them 
to  climb,  and  when  the  gloomy  night  fell  they 
were  entirely  sealed  up  in  that  narrow  space 
under  the  roof.  I  heard  that  a  dead  family 
was  found  after  the  flood  at  somewhere  in 
Kameido,  having  been  killed  by  the  suffocation 
in  the  same  circumstance. 

Mr.  Otaki,  however,  broke  a  hole  in  the  roof, 
and  climbed  up  to  the  top  of  the  house  to  look 
abroad.  The  surrounding  scene  was  truly 
sickening;  the  painful  and  urgent  cry  for  help 


IN  DARKNESS  69 

from  the  neighboring  inhabitants  mingled  with 
the  mournful  echo  of  the  cattle  growling  in 
their  last  agony  were  arising  in  the  dark  as  in 
a  sanguinary  battlefield;  the  roof  upon  which 
he  was  standing  looked  like  a  little  rock  to  be 
carried  away  at  any  moment  by  the  roaring 
torrent ;  death  truly  stared  him  in  the  face ! 

He  feared  that  his  wife  should  lose  her 
consciousness  in  an  instant,  if  he  allow  her  to 
look  out  over  this  awful  scene.  So  he  deter- 
mined rather  to  retire  with  his  family  to  the 
ceiling  and  cheer  them,  entrusting  their  fate 
to  God.  Their  prayer  was  answered,  and  the 
water  increased  no  more,  standing  still  at  a 
few  inches  below  them.  They  passed  three 
days  in  this  state,  having  sufficient  provision, 
that  was  prepared  by  his  wise  foresight,  and 
were  saved  out  by  a  life  boat  sent  from  the 
city  authorities  in  the  morning  of  15th. 
Though  there  was  much  damage  in  this  neigh- 
borhood, he  did  not  lose  anything  that  be- 
longed to  him,  and  even  got  the  more  con- 
fidence of  his  customer  by  his  honest  behavior 
at  such  a  time. 


70  THEY  THAT  SAT 

THE  MEMBERS  IN  THE  BOARDING  HOUSE. 

The  quarter  where  our  boarding  house 
stood  was  soon  inundated,  when  Sumida 
River  overflowed  on  the  evening  of  nth.  All 
bodies  in  it  constructed  high  shelves,  and  pre- 
pared every  thing  for  the  coming  calamity,  as 
far  as  they  could.  When  the  unexpected  water 
from  the  Tone  united  its  new  great  force, 
however,  the  place  became  very  dangerous, 
and  the  naval  soldiers  and  poHcemen  went 
round  about  here  with  many  life  boats  and 
persuaded  the  people  to  flee. 

Many  thousands  of  the  poor  sufferers  were 
sent  off  to  the  school  buildings,  Buddhist  tem- 
ples and  wrestling  circus,  where  they  were  well 
provided  with  all  their  daily  necessities;  there 
they  slept  under  the  brilHant  gas  and  electric 
lights  at  night;  there  they  passed  their  lazy 
days  without  any  toil  for  their  livelihood ;  they 
were  rather  happy  to  stay  longer  there.  There- 
fore they  are  dreaming  of  the  "gracious  flood" 
even  now,  and  praying  that  it  would  come 
again  in  next  year. 

But  our  members  in  the  boarding  house, 
however  poor  and  miserable  they  had  been, 
had  an  entirely  different  spirit.     Mr.  Gonda, 


IN  DARKNESS  71 

the  director  of  the  house,  much  grieved  that 
they  must  sacrifice  the  long-cherished  spirit  of 
self-help  and  self-respect  in  their  hearts  be- 
cause of  receiving  the  merciful  help  of  others 
in  this  temporary  trial.  All  persons  under 
him  thought  that  such  disgrace  was  more  in- 
tolerable than  hunger  or  any  other  pain. 

So  they  assembled  together  and  held  a 
prayer  meeting,  standing  in  the  water,  and 
asked  God  that  they  might  save  themselves  out 
from  all  dangers,  without  receiving  others' 
mercy,  and  they  made  up  their  minds  to  strive 
for  victory  over  all  difficulties  in  the  flood. 
Mr.  Gonda,  however,  persuaded  that  any  one 
who  thinks  himself  to  be  unable  to  take  such 
hard  work  should  go  off  at  once,  and  two 
weak  men  were  carried  away  by  a  life  boat. 
Then  Mr.  Gonda  sent  the  women  and  children 
to  my  church,  which  was  not  flooded,  to  be 
taken  care  of  by  other  members  of  it,  that  the 
remaining  persons  might  struggle  freely 
against  this  strange  trial. 

All  the  neighbors  had  kindly  told  them  that 
it  is  too  indiscreet  to  remain  in  such  a  dan- 
gerous place,  and  earnestly  tried  to  bring  them 
to  the  same  opinion  with  themselves.  But 
when  they  saw  our  members'  obstinacy  would 


y2  THEY  THAT  SAT 

never  yield,  they  began  to  reproach  and  aban- 
don them,  crying,  ''Barbarous  Christians !  Ob- 
stinate fools,  who  can  not  care  for  their  own 
lives!" 

Then  Mr.  Gonda  consulted  with  the  mem- 
bers how  to  support  themselves  in  this  circum- 
stances, and  they  decided  that  every  one  should 
go  to  certain  places  and  buy  any  articles  he 
thought  suitable,  and  go  round  in  the  water  to 
sell  them  to  the  sufferers,  who  were  yet  re- 
maining at  the  far  end  of  these  districts. 

As  they  foresaw,  the  water  did  not  increase 
higher  than  their  breast  on  the  street,  and  they 
went  about  in  the  slums,  especially  where  the 
people  had  been  missed  by  the  officers  sent  to 
save  them  and  were  in  the  most  distressing 
state  of  hunger.  They  tried  to  sell  their  ar- 
ticles to  such  sufferers  at  the  lowest  possible 
price  at  first,  but  as  the  time  went  on  their 
miserable  condition  became  greater  and 
greater,  and  our  members  were  at  last  obliged 
often  to  forget  their  own  matter,  and  give 
their  articles  for  nothing.  So  they  were  wel- 
comed by  the  people  at  everywhere  as  their 
saviors  almost  to  be  worshiped.  When  they 
came  home  at  evening  they  used  to  make  ac- 
count, but  it  was  not  the  money  that  they 


IN  DARKNESS  'jz 

brought  home,  but  diverse  kinds  of  dehghtful 
accounts  of  their  day's  work  done  for  the  poor 
sufferers  for  the  sake  of  our  Lord. 

There  were  not  a  few  who  understood  the 
true  love  of  Christians  for  the  first  time  by  our 
members'  generous  behavior  during  this  flood. 
One  night,  however,  when  they  assembled  to- 
gether they  found  that  they  had  all  given  up 
their  articles  for  nothing,  each  thinking  he  has 
met  with  especially  poor  people,  and  on  making 
up  their  accounts,  there  were  only  three  sens 
in  cash  at  all,  and  they  passed  that  night  with 
hunger,  each  taking  only  a  morsel  of  bread. 
But  timely  relief  came  soon,  when  I  visited 
them  to  present  a  contribution  of  money  that 
had  just  reached  my  hands,  without  thinking 
whether  they  were  in  such  a  condition.  After 
it,  the  contribution  of  money,  rice,  clothes  and 
many  kinds  of  food  began  to  reach  me,  fol- 
lowing one  after  another,  and  it  encouraged 
them  to  devote  themselves  more  diligently 
than  ever  to  such  charitable  work.  They  ven- 
tured to  go  far  and  wide  into  the  most  dan- 
gerous places,  and  exerted  themselves  to  dis- 
tribute the  merciful  presents  to  those  hidden 
sufferers,  whom  most  people  could  never  find 
out. 


74  THEY  THAT  SAT 

Unless  we  are  poor  and  acquainted  with  all 
their  circumstances,  we  can  not  detect  the  se- 
cret of  poor  people.  Moreover  most  of  them 
are  selfish  and  cunning,  and  therefore,  how- 
ever prudent  and  cautious  the  relievers  should 
endeavor  to  be,  their  alms  will  be  easily  seized 
upon  by  idle  rogues  as  their  prey,  and  in  many 
cases  their  works  end  with  no  fruit,  while  the 
innocent  donors  alone  are  proud  of  it,  dream- 
ing mighty  success.  I  saw  many  facts  of  this 
kind  in  the  flood.  Many  poor  people,  who  had 
not  so  much  damage,  were  deceiving  the  visit- 
ors with  admirable  skill  to  attract  their  sym- 
pathy to  seize  upon  the  charitable  presents 
intended  only  for  true  sufferers.  There  were 
many  vagabonds,  w^ho  took  such  opportunity 
and  entered  into  the  flooded  quarters  from 
other  districts.  They  mixed  with  the  true 
refugees  in  order  to  be  taken  into  the  shelters, 
and  received  undeserved  entertainment. 

Our  members,  however,  had  been  living 
among  such  people  always,  and  therefore  they 
were  not  deceived,  and  served  me  as  the  most 
eflicient  distributors  of  the  alms,  and  by  their 
diligent  exertions  our  Union  succeeded  in  con- 
veying the  love  of  our  friends  to  those  whose 
circumstances  most  needed  it.      Led  by  the 


IN  DARKNESS  75 

hand  of  God,  they  were  thus  induced  to  do  a 
most  momentous  work  at  the  most  needed  mo- 
ment, when  no  help  from  the  rich  or  authori- 
ties could  reach  such  people;  and  those  who 
received  most  of  the  grace  of  God  were  none 
but  our  members,  who,  being  called  barbarians 
or  fools  by  other  people,  experienced  such 
mighty  work  that  none  can  dream  of. 

The  flood,  that  caused  much  damage  to 
crops,  business,  properties,  and  lives  generally, 
was  thus  a  gracious  baptism  for  my  work,  as 
I  said,  which  renewed  and  confirmed  the  faith 
and  spirit  of  all  the  members  of  the  Union. 

August  15th,  191 1. 


y6  THEY  THAT  SAT 


XII. 

An  Old  and  New  Men  in  One  Person. 

Every  member  of  my  Union,  who  was 
blessed  and  born  again  by  the  grace  of  God, 
has  his  own  peculiar  account  about  their 
change  of  the  character  and  life,  which  would 
be  very  interesting  to  my  readers.  But  as  I 
can  not  describe  all  of  them  here,  I  will  men- 
tion one  case  of  Mr.  M.  Numari,  of  whose 
conversion  I  described  already  in  the  preced- 
ing chapter. 

Though  he  had  run  away  from  his  father 
and  committed  crimes,  his  repentance  was  not 
hopeless.  According  to  his  account,  he  feared 
his  sins  dreadfully  and  repented  from  his  heart 
when  he  was  first  sentenced  to  imprisonment, 
and  really  wanted  to  change  his  life  at  his  re- 
turn from  prison.  "If  there  was  any  kind 
person  who  would  have  helped  me,"  he  con- 
fessed to  me,  ''I  should  have  been  saved." 
Unfortunately,  however,  there  was  none  when 
he  was  released.     "When  I  came  out  from  the 


NUMARI,  THE  EX=CRIMINAL 


IN  DARKNESS  yy 

prison,"  he  continued,  *'I  was  clothed  with 
only  a  thin  knit  shirt  and  drawer  in  cold  win- 
ter, and  without  one  penny — a  poor  hungering 
dog!  Unless  one  was  a  godly  saint  it  is  im- 
possible for  him  to  endure  a  holy  death,  not 
committing  any  more  sins  for  living.  Under 
such  circumstances  I  was  driven  again  to  steal 
the  food  and  clothes  for  my  existence  as  soon 
as  I  left  the  gate  of  the  prison."  Thus  he 
has  now  great  sympathy  with  ex-criminals  in 
the  same  condition,  and  is  ready  to  receive 
and  convert  them. 

But  as  he  was  going  on  to  continue  in  his 
hellward  course,  his  sensibilities  of  such  fear 
of  sin  had  gradually  disappeared  from  his 
mind,  and  he  became  indifferent  to  it,  and 
grew  into  quite  a  wicked  fellow.  When  he 
was  fourteen  years  old  he  was  put  in  a  non- 
Christian  asylum  for  ex-criminals,  started  by 
a  heathen,  Zenkichi,  Takahashi,  as  other  kinds 
of  our  Christian  social  works  are  imitated  by 
them.  But  there  was  no  work  of  Holy  Spirit 
among  them  to  convert  his  heart,  and,  when 
the  director  of  the  asylum  saw  that  he  was  so 
stubborn  and  wild,  he  gave  him  a  terrible 
chastisement  by  binding  him  to  a  pole  out 
doors  and  poured  a  bucketful  of  water  upon 


78  THEY  THAT  SAT 

his  head  and  exposed  him  in  the  freezing  win- 
ter for  the  whole  night.  On  the  next  morn- 
ing, however,  the  director  still  found  him  not 
yielded,  so  that  he  determined  to  make  him  a 
maimed  person  who  might  no  longer  go  on  in 
his  sinful  ways.  So  he  broke  a  joint  of  his 
right  hand,  and  set  him  free. 

Having  been  treated  with  such  a  violence, 
he  thought  that  he  would  be  killed  soon  if  he 
stayed  any  longer  with  such  a  heartless  man, 
and  he  ran  away  from  the  asylum.  When  he 
was  running  on  a  street  in  Kyobashi  district, 
thinking  how  to  get  the  remedy  of  his  hand, 
there  was  a  fire  and  the  people  were  in  a  great 
confusion.  So  he  stole  some  articles  in  the 
broad  day  light,  that  he  might  be  arrested. 
He  was  sent  into  the  prison,  as  he  hoped,  and 
received  the  perfect  medical  treatment  in  the 
prison  hospital.  He  was  much  happier  in  the 
prison  than  in  the  asylum  of  the  hypocrite! 
In  the  prison  he  met  with  other  youngsters, 
who  were  in  the  same  asylum  with  him,  hav- 
ing been  sentenced  to  much  longer  imprison- 
ment than  himself  for  the  great  crime,  and  he 
understood  that  it  was  advantageous  for  him 
that  he  did  not  stay  longer  in  such  asylum, 
and  united  them  to  commit   the  crime   with 


IN  DARKNESS  79 

them.  When  he  grew  up  he  became  a  very 
famous  thief  among  the  poHcemen  in  this  city, 
as  he  had  an  admirable  skill  to  flee  from  their 
hands.  Two  policemen  were  dismissed  from 
their  office  in  the  police  station  of  my  district 
on  account  of  their  failures  to  keep  him.  '*It 
is  a  very  easy  work  to  escape  from  their  hand," 
he  remarked  to  me,  when  he  confessed  his  past 
crimes,  "if  I  can  find  one  of  the  very  many 
careless  moments  of  the  policemen." 

Once  when  he  was  arrested  in  the  Honjo 
Police  Station  he  jumped  up  its  high  brick 
wall  in  a  moment  leisure  and  flashed  away 
over  it  like  a  lightning  before  the  policemen 
stirred  up  after  him.  Having  ran  round  along 
the  corner  of  the  wall  before  the  pursuers 
caught  his  sight,  he  jumped  over  it  again  into 
the  compound  of  the  station  itself,  when  it 
became  comparatively  a  safe  refuge,  and  con- 
cealed himself  in  a  narrow  space  of  its  back 
building.  The  policemen  rung  telephones  to 
all  other  stations,  and  the  extraordinary  alarm 
cordon  was  instantly  arranged  in  the  necessary 
parts  of  the  city.  But  all  their  efforts  were  in 
vain,  as  the  thief  himself  was  coolly  looking 
at  his  watch  in  this  unexpected  refuge  wait- 
ing for  the  time  the  cordon  should  be  put  off. 


8o  THEY  THAT  SAT 

And  then  he  came  out  from  his  hiding  place 
there  in  due  course,  having  dressed  his  head 
and  face  with  a  band  that  he  made  out  of  his 
white  undercloth,  and  with  the  shoes  stolen 
from  the  house  of  the  head  of  that  police 
station.  He  walked  slowly  and  silently  in  the 
street  as  if  one  was  going  home  from  a  hos- 
pital, having  received  a  surgical  operation. 
When  he  came  to  the  Ryogeku  bridge,  where 
a  policeman  was  standing  with  yet  vigilant 
eyes,  he  approached  the  officer  and  asked  in  a 
rural  dialect  what  was  the  hour,  and  thus 
escaped  from  their  hands  entirely,  leaving  the 
words,  ''Thank  you,  sir." 

Such  was  his  skill,  and  he  was  much  feared 
by  policemen  in  duty  with  him.  But  he  told 
me  that  he  could  not  run  away  when  he  was 
treated  kindly  by  a  certain  policeman,  as  he 
felt  so  sorry  if  the  policeman  should  be  dis- 
missed on  his  account.  He  behaved  also  very 
wild  in  the  prison  and  often  received  special 
punishments  of  every  kind  in  it. 

He  had,  however,  a  peculiar  patriotic  spirit 
and  tried  to  do  some  good  for  the  country. 
Once  he  thought  it  is  a  patriotic  deed  to  per- 
secute the  Christians  and  drive  that  foreign 
religion  out  of  this  country.     So  he  helped  a 


IN  DARKNESS  8i 

Shinto  priest,  Shogen  Hara,  who  lives  near 
the  Hachiman  shrine  in  my  parish,  and  went 
round  the  country,  preaching  their  anti- 
Christian  purport.  All  the  expenses  for 
this  movement  were  paid  by  him  from  his 
unlimited  resource.  He,  at  the  head  of  his 
band  of  the  wicked  men,  often  attacked  the 
Salvation  Army,  holding  its  open-air  cam- 
paign by  the  Takabashi  bridge  near  my 
church. 

Such  is  his  former  life.  But  when  he  came 
to  my  Union  and  was  converted,  he  was  en- 
tirely changed.  The  first  work  I  gave  him 
was  to  clean  the  street  lamps.  I  told  him 
that  God's  name  could  be  glorified  by  any 
man  irrespective  of  his  work,  and  that  he  must 
work  most  honestly  as  an  ideal  lamp  cleaner. 
He  did  just  as  I  told  him.  One  day,  when 
he  was  doing  his  work  at  the  gate  of  a  man- 
sion in  Azabu,  the  master  of  the  house,  whose 
admiration  had  already  been  excited  by  his 
daily  work,  came  out  and  gave  him  some 
money  and  said,  "Take  this  little  money;  I 
am  surprised  by  your  honesty;  it  is  for  your 
tobacco;  go  on  in  your  present  way,  and  I 
am  sure  you  will  become  a  happy  man."  *'No, 
thank  you,  sir,"  responded  the  amazed  fellow; 


82  THEY  THAT  SAT 

"I  am  doing  what  I  ought  to  do,  receiving  my 
daily  wages  from  my  company,  and  there  is 
no  reason  on  my  part  to  receive  such  extra 
present."  But  as  the  gentleman  forced  him 
to  take  it,  he  brought  it  to  the  manager  of 
his  company,  but  the  manager  only  sneered 
at  him,  saying,  ''Don't  be  a  fool;  that  is  your 
income."  However,  his  conscience  would  not 
let  him  keep  it.  So  he  came  to  me  to  ask 
what  to  do,  and  according  to  my  advice,  he 
bought  a  religious  book  with  that  money  and 
gave  it  to  the  gentleman,  and  told  him  what 
made  him  different  from  other  working  men 
is  explained  in  that  book. 

The  next  work  I  gave  him  was  to  go  round 
the  streets  and  sell  some  liquid.  Now  there 
lived  in  Honjo  district  his  former  chief — a 
man  who  was  over  fifty  years  old,  also  very 
wicked  and  sentenced  many  times  to  long  im- 
prisonment, and  once  killed  a  policeman  and 
some  other  people.  One  day,  when  he  came 
round  near  this  man's  house,  he  accidentally 
stumbled  and  fell  down,  pouring  out  all  his 
liquid  on  the  road  and  lost  it.  Presently  a  maid 
came  out  from  his  old  chief's  house,  saw  the 
poor  young  man  in  despair,  and  was  much  sur- 
prised to  find  him  to  be  her  old  acquaintance. 


IN  DARKNESS  83 

She  ran  in  and  informed  it  to  her  master.  The 
master  came  out  instantly,  and  seeing  all  that, 
told  him,  *T  was  much  moved  having  heard  of 
your  recent  change,  and  hope  for  your  success. 
I  feel  very  sorry  for  you  to  see  this  unfortunate 
accident,  but  I  hope  you  will  never  be  discour- 
aged by  it.  So  I  propose  to  buy  all  the  liquid 
you  have  lost,  and  pay  for  it  at  your  selling 
price,  so  that  you  may  go  home  without  dam- 
age by  this  accident."  Mr.  Numari  under- 
stood his  kind  intention  and  sympathy  very 
well,  but  at  the  same  time  he  thought  that  he 
must  not  yield  to  any  merciful  help  from  that 
sinful  man,  whom  he  was  to  lead  to  God  and 
make  repent.  So  he  declined  to  accept  his 
kind  proposal,  saying,  "It  is  very  kind  of  you, 
and  thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind  offer, 
but  there  is  a  reason  why  I  can  not  accept  it. 
One  who  makes  me  stumble  and  lose  my  article 
to-day  is  none  but  the  God,  my  new  Lord," 
and  smiling  at  the  old  man's  perplexed  face, 
he  continued,  "My  God  has  seized  my  day's 
earnings  from  my  hands  to-day.  But  do  you 
know  why?  There  is  a  profound  reason.  As 
you  heard,  I  had  repented  and  become  a  Chris- 
tian, and  many  persons  are  praising  me;  but 
there  are  great  many  sins  more  to  repent  in 


84  THEY  THAT  SAT 

my  heart.  You  know  very  well,  I  was  igno- 
rant of  the  true  value  of  money,  as  I  could  get 
it  any  time  by  an  easy  labor,  and  squandered 
it  most  carelessly.  So  my  God  gave  me  a 
very  important  lesson  just  now,  and  taught 
me  that  the  money  I  used  to  steal  before  was 
so  valuable  that  the  people  could  earn  it  only 
with  such  pains  and  difficulties  as  I  have  now 
experienced.  Now  I  understand  more  deeply 
about  my  past  sins  to  repent,  hearing  this 
clear  voice  of  God  from  above.  I  can  not, 
therefore,  sell  such  a  precious  grace  of  God 
to  you  whatever  price  you  may  offer  me.  It 
is  the  will  of  God  to  polish  and  enlighten  my 
heart  more  and  to  lead  me  to  the  more  happy 
life.  I  would  rather  pass  this  day  with  fast- 
ing and  prayers,  and  receive  this  heavenly 
food  to  my  thankful  spirit."  His  old  chief 
was  greatly  amazed  and  moved  with  this  ex- 
traordinary change  in  the  young  man,  and 
ever  since  he  listens  to  his  words  with  keen 
interest  and  reverence. 

On  one  occasion  Mr.  Numari  called  on  a 
police  detective  at  Honjo  Police  Station,  Mr. 
G.  Ashida,  who  warned  me  for  my  safety 
when  I  took  Mr.  Numari  into  my  Union.  He 
was  arrested  several  times  by  this  man,  and 


IN  DARKNESS  85 

they  were  old  acquaintances  with  each  other. 
Mr.  Ashida  is  a  Christian,  but  is  not  earnest, 
and  Mr.  Numari  found  now  that  he  had  done 
many  things  to  him  which  were  not  becoming 
to  a  Christian.  So  in  his  return  he  went  there 
to  arrest  him  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  per- 
suaded him  to  become  more  earnest,  and  told 
him  before  the  audience  of  many  astonished 
policemen  about  the  grace  of  God  that  changed 
him  so  marvelously. 

He  has  visited  also  the  Shinto  priest,  Sho- 
gen  Hara,  many  times  after  his  conversion, 
and  told  him  to  repent  and  to  become  a  Chris- 
tian, demonstrating  the  powerlessness  of  his 
work,  by  the  fact  that  he  could  not  convert 
him  when  the  priest  was  with  him  so  long 
time.  The  result  of  it  is  at  least  the  priest's 
silence  against  Christianity,  and  that  he  has 
no  more  courage  to  do  anything  against  my 
work  as  he  did  against  the  Salvation  Army 
before. 

Mr.  Numari  is  one  of  my  powerful  weap- 
ons against  such  ignorant  people  at  present, 
at  the  same  time  he  is  a  good  citizen,  who 
pays  the  taxes  to  the  government,  successful 
in  the  trade  of  shoemaking,  which  work  I 
gave   him   at  last.      He   married   to   a  good 


86  THEY  THAT  SAT 

Christian  woman  last  year,  and  a  lovely  baby 
was  born  to  them  this  year,  whom  I  named 
"Nobuko,"  a  daughter  of  the  Faith.  They 
are  enjoying  the  luxury  of  the  bountiful  bless- 
ings of  God  in  their  wonderful  happy  home, 
glorifying  the  name  of  our  Lord  in  this  miser- 
able heathen  society. 

As  Japan  has  made  some  progress  in  the 
material  civilization,  some  think  that  we  are 
also  much  advanced  in  religion  and  morality. 
But  it  is  a  great  mistake.  Those  who  have 
hitherto  hated  Christianity  became  indifferent 
to  it — that  is  about  all  of  the  present  change. 
It  seems  to  me  that  all  foreign  churches  should 
now  reinforce  the  missionaries  and  concen- 
trate their  forces,  and  do  their  very  best  for 
solving  the  problem,  "Can  Christianity  con- 
quer Japan?" 

However,  the  age  of  arguing  is  now  past  in 
Japan;  we  must  show  the  people  the  practical 
good  of  Christianity  to  humanity.  Such  is  my 
humble  desire  in  carrying  the  work  of  the 
Laborers'  Reform  Union.  I  have  already  be- 
gan it,  and  its  foundation  is  laid  upon  my 
past  work  of  twenty  years.  If  I  may  be  al- 
lowed to  go  on  with  my  work  in  a  greater 
scale.  It  is  not  only  a  blessing  to  the  poor  peo- 


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IN  DARKNESS  87 

pie,  but  it  will  also  do  a  tremendous  good  in 
establishment  of  God's  kingdom  in  this  coun- 
try by  showing  what  His  religion  can  actu- 
ally do. 

The  following  are  the  farewell  words  of 
my  father  in  faith,  the  late  Bishop  C.  M.  VVil- 
lianis,  which  he  wrote  to  me  from  Yokohama, 
when  he  was  about  to  leave  Japan  eternally 
for  Virginia: 
"Sayonara : 

"I  hope  your  work  among  the  poor  wretched 
people  will  continue  to  grow  and  be  blessed 
and  that  others  will  follow  your  example." 

I  am  ready  to  serve  our  Lord  until  my  end 
against  any  hardship — my  life  and  my  all  is 
offered  in  sacrifice  to  Him.  I  hope  my  read- 
ers in  sympathy  with  my  work  will  pray  for 
me  and  for  my  work.  I  tried  to  keep  silent 
for  the  last  twenty  years,  but  now  I  can  not, 
not  for  myself,  but  for  His  glory. 


DATE  DUE 

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1 

1 

1 

CAYLORO 

PAINTEO  IN  U.S.A. 

BW8545  .S94 

They  that  sat  in  darkness  :  an  account 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00035  0175 


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